Mr. Speaker, I have the pleasure to present a petition with many hundreds of names on it, calling for the inquiry, which the federal government eventually relented to, on the collapse of the sockeye fishery on the west coast.
What is important about this petition effort is New Democrats have been receiving names and signatures from people right across British Columbia, and in fact across Canada, imploring the government to act with some sort of responsible management over our fishery. It has proven itself to be a fruitful exercise. Canadians, when they wrote this petition, signed it and talked about it with their friends. They were able to force the government to do something it said was not necessary.
I remember the Conservative candidate in the recent byelection said that it would be a witch hunt and that we did not even need it. The Conservatives were out of touch with British Columbians.
These Canadians who signed this petition calling for this inquiry saw the right path forward. Through pressure like this, they were able to make the Conservative government act like a proper government and force this inquiry to happen.