Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Brampton East for a very impassioned speech in this House. When we bring our personal stories here, it brings to light the reasons for why we are here.
I would also like to share that I had the honour of working as a constituency assistant for the former member of Nanaimo—Cowichan, Jean Crowder, who was a colleague to many in this House. When doing that constituency work, I also had the experience of witnessing people who had to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. For many of these people, the 40-hour work week was simply not providing the means to get the job done.
I would like to ask my hon. colleague to help those people, to give them a livable wage. Will he join with us and establish a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour, so we can show the leadership necessary in this great country of ours that the provinces may follow?