Mr. Speaker, the remarks of member for Wellington—Halton Hills were well thought out.
The member said that there was a solution, and that would be moving toward the government proposal to put in place term limits and allowing for the election of senators. I think most of us are willing to debate those issues.
However, one of the real shortcomings of the government proposal is that the Prime Minister, who has now appointed more senators than pretty near any other prime minister in Canada, senators, in my view, being more loyal to the Prime Minister than maybe even the country, is a concern.
The shortcoming of the government's proposal is that the Prime Minister has never really sat down with the other first ministers in Canada to see where they are on the issue. We are a federation. I will grant that the Prime Minister has a major leadership role to play. However, could the member tell us why the Prime Minister is so reluctant to sit down with the other first ministers of Canada to discuss this issue, among others?