Mr. Speaker, I am a Conservative member of Parliament. I voted in favour of same sex marriage last year. I will be voting essentially in favour of same sex marriage again on this motion.
On the issue with which my colleague ended his speech, talking about creating divisions, most of my colleagues disagree with me on this question. I would go to war in order to fight for their right to disagree with me on this question. I know they disagree with me but they respect my right to have my view, because they know that I believe in strong families too and I believe in civil rights too. I know that they believe in strong families and they are coming at this from a decent, respectful, honourable position. Honourable people with decent and good intentions can honourably disagree about difficult questions. That is why we have always had a free vote on this question.
My colleague opposite and I agree on this question. His party had to be arm wrestled by the media in order to actually come to the position of having a free vote. His colleague sitting in front of him, the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North, had to resign from cabinet in order to be able to vote his conscience. How responsible is it for the Liberal Party to force people to resign their seats, wrestle with themselves, vote against their constituents and their consciences on an issue as important as this one?
He gets up in his place in the House and says that anybody who disagrees with him is essentially un-Canadian and does not respect the charter and civil rights. If we are going to go forward as a country and have these kinds of honourable civil debates where decent people can honourably disagree about important questions, that kind of language has to stop.