Mr. Speaker, I am a great believer in political parties. I think political parties provide Canadians with a shorthand of where people stand so that individual Canadians are not forced to examine individual voting records. That is why I think our political system is superior in some ways to that of the United States or some municipal councils. In the United States, everybody says that Congress is terrible but that their own congressman is okay. That is because they do not have the opportunity to examine what their voting records are and so on.
I think political parties provide an important way of informing Canadians and delivering clear messages, clear alternatives and clear choices. I think clear choices are good from a policy perspective, and they are good for Canadians.
I find it very amusing that the Liberal Party is purporting through this motion to give more power to individual members, but will not do so in the one place where it would actually count: in question period. That would actually have some impact on their strategic approach, and we understand why: the member for Saint-Laurent—Cartierville said himself that he wants to be able to maintain that maximum advantage for the partisan reason of invoking damage upon the government.
It is the same thing that David Herle said last night on television about how question period works when that is the agenda. That is why the Liberals are not really interested in empowering members of Parliament. They are really interested in the same old Liberal game: power at all costs.