Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member returning to Speaker Jerome's 1975 ruling, because that seems to be the most authoritative piece on the responses from ministers. This should not be entirely parenthetical, but I will mention that when we look at past copies of Hansard there was not so much of a need for the speaker to regulate this matter. In other words, ministers of the crown, in previous generations in this place, were very unlikely to be found heckling and really unlikely to give a response that was in fact insulting to the questioner. If we go back to the decisions of Lucien Lamoureux, we see a House of Commons that was very different in its content.
I would like to ask the hon. member whether, given the guidance we have from previous speakers, such as the judgment he cited by Speaker Jerome and previous speakers, do we need to change the rules, or do we need to encourage the speaker to use the rules that are at hand? I do not refer only to the current speaker but to several generations of speakers, probably going back to Speaker Jerome, who did not enforce as many of the rules as they had within their powers to use.