Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his speech on a sensitive matter. He knows that the country and Parliament is split on this issue. Even within the gay community, there are divergent views on whether or not the definition of marriage should be changed. I think the member has articulated his arguments well.
The member knows that France adopted an approach to resolving this by extending benefits to all and adopting a civil union approach. It would appear that this has been a compromise which has been widely accepted within France.
Would the member suggest that perhaps that should have been more fully considered by parliamentarians in committee and even here in the House prior to moving forward so that we could have considered more broadly how we might be able to resolve the differences of views among Canadians?