Mr. Speaker, I believe the last remarks of the hon. member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville expose fully how shallow the Liberal commitment is to these kinds of changes. The Liberal members stand for themselves as a better argument than any I could make for why this is not a genuine proposal from them.
However, I will point out that I am very surprised that the member appears not to have read his very own motion.
It says:
(1) The Speaker shall recognize Members in alphabetical order by Party.
If adopted, that would be the rule of this House, not a convention reflected in a book that says the Speaker is guided by whips' lists. That is a convention. That is not the statute, the law of the House.
The member is proposing to change the very law of the House, yet he stands here in the House and does not seem to understand what it is that he is trying to do. It frightens me that the person proposing this change to the Standing Orders does not even realize, by his own admission right in front of us right here today, the consequences of doing so: that this change would remove the Speaker's discretion entirely. It is a clear direction when it states:
(1) The Speaker shall recognize Members in alphabetical order by Party.
That would take away the Speaker's discretion. It would be a dramatic change from the convention right now of the whips' lists.