Mr. Speaker, we do know what happens when there are majority Liberal governments. We have periods of unprecedented growth, prosperity, job creation and, by the way, no deficit. That is what happened the last time we had a majority Liberal government in our country.
Maybe the member fundamentally understands the concept of democracy. I presented a motion at committee. The committee then had an opportunity, by majority vote, to exert its will. In this instance, my motion did not carry and the committee went a different way. However, the government seems to have this idea that democracy is it getting its way. We heard the statement by the member. Why should the government be able to select its witnesses? The government wants these witnesses. If it does not get its witnesses, it is not democratic and it is not fair. It does not work like that. It is a minority government. We have to have a majority vote of either committee or the House to get what we want.
I moved my motion. Unfortunately it did not succeed. The committee made a choice by majority vote to go in a different direction. That is the very nature of democracy. We present ideas and then we have to win over a majority of people to get support for our idea to get it implemented. A democracy is not one person, be it the Prime Minister or anybody else, standing up and saying, “This is my idea. Take it. If you do not, I will force it on you or I will find a way to bring retribution if you disagree with me”.
On the issue specifically of the witness list, when we have the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police who, through its membership across the country, support overwhelmingly a bill that promotes public safety, when we have the Canadian Police Association, when we have the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, when we have countless victims groups, when we have the Bar Association, pediatricians and doctors, all these individuals who have come forward and have said that the registry needs to be maintained, that we need to kill the bill that would gut the registry, then I stand with police, with pediatricians and with those people who keep our communities safe.