Mr. Speaker, it was interesting that the member said “8,000 words”. They did a word count on the throne speech because of how long it was. I must tell him that it is not the quantity of words but the quality. This particular throne speech failed when it comes to quality. In terms of the word count, it might have a higher number of words than previous throne speeches, but in terms of quality it suffers in many different ways.
My question for the member is related to the whole idea of the Prime Minister choosing to avoid returning to the House of Commons. We were supposed to be coming back on September 16. The Prime Minister could have prorogued the session and still have come back on September 16 or September 18. However, he intentionally chose to come back on October 16 and then went AWOL to Europe on October 17 for the European Union trade agreement, maybe, as many individuals would believe, because he was nervous about what was happening in the Prime Minister's Office.
Why was there a need to have us return on October 16, thereby avoiding—