Mr. Speaker, I find the comments that my colleague and friend has made to be really unique, at a time when we are talking about his ability to be free to speak. He talked about that himself. However, he decided to be hyper-partisan at a time when we are talking being free to speak and to speak our minds.
I would only say this to my colleague: He should go back and check the voting record of this caucus. He will find on a very difficult government bill that there were indeed members of this caucus who voted with the government. Therefore, it is not unanimous that we always vote against the government or private members' bills from the other side.
In fact, we have voted with private members' bills on the other side on numerous occasions, so I can tell him unequivocally that no one whips the member for Welland on a private member's bill, regardless of what sheet he may or may not have seen. However, that is neither here nor there. I have many sheets here, but none of them are about voting.
The reality is that on private member's business, we are actually free to vote every way we want and there has never been a whip system inside our party. In fact, we get whipped so badly when it is their side and we all agree with them. I am not sure if they want us to be whipped when we agree with the other side on a private member's bill when we all voted for it. I am not exactly sure whether they want us to be whipped that way or not.
I guess we will never end the debate, since I am not inside the government's caucus to hear what they tell their members. They are certainly not inside my caucus to hear how we have our discussions, either. That is just the way it is. I guess we have to take it on trust as to whether the member has indeed ever been whipped on a PMB.