Madam Speaker, the member said to say something meaningful. Obviously democratic reform is not something meaningful to a Liberal. If it were meaningful, the Liberals probably would have done something about it long before now, which brings me to the point that I was about to make. My colleague, I am sure, will be very interested in it.
We have a province in this country that actually accepted the cost and took the time and energy required to elect senators. There is a province in this country that did that. It elected its own senators. It was the great province of Alberta.
What was the reaction from the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister said he was not going to have Senate reform piecemeal. What does that mean? How is that not a slap in the face to every Albertan who cast a ballot? Even if they did not, every Albertan who contributed tax dollars to ensure that there was an election for their senators in that province has to take that personally. There is no other way to take that. This was from a Prime Minister who said he was going to judge the success of his administration, the success of his government, on how well he addressed western alienation. It is unbelievable.
The Prime Minister is going to judge his government on that basis, but he appoints senators from Alberta over the ones the people of Alberta selected. It is patronage of the worst kind. There is patronage where one can argue about the merits of the individual and whether he or she should or should not have a certain position or job. But the Prime Minister selected people over the heads of those who were democratically selected by the people of the province because the Prime Minister said he would not enact Senate reform piecemeal. There is no justifiable reason that the Prime Minister cannot put in place a system of appointing elected senators.