Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Palliser for an excellent speech and for his wisdom on this very important issue.
He talked about how the government took this on and consulted with first nations, a process that he quite rightly said was four years long. It was about engaging first nations.
I think everybody realizes that this is an obsolete election process. As he said, it is fraught with fraud and abuse. It is about giving first nations a process that modernizes it and is respectful of the work of the Manitoba chiefs and other first nations who put so much time and effort into putting this piece of legislation forward.
A Liberal member recently spoke about how paternalistic this is, but this is about democracy and choice. I wonder if my colleague from Palliser could comment on why opposition members do not want democracy and equality for first nations. We are seeing a trend. We saw how they voted on matrimonial real property, which would give equality to first nations women. This is a trend.
I wonder if he could comment on the importance of moving forward with this legislation.