Mr. Speaker, I cannot even begin to tell the House how much respect I have for my colleague. I have known him for quite some time. I sat on that side of the House for the entire tenure of the Conservative government.
To my surprise, I heard him say that there should be a free vote within the House, and to my surprise, the member referred to the tyrannical majority government. I swear there is a small indentation on this floor where my rear end landed, because I jumped and fell right out of chair. When the member started to talk and lecture us about freeing up the votes within the House, I thought, honest to goodness, this is something that was not done in the past 8 to 10 years, which is the responsible way to look at a project of this magnitude stretching across this country.
We know the benefits. Newfoundland and Labrador is not directly affected by this, but we know the benefits of this industry and now the turmoil created by the situation in the oil and gas sector.
Could my hon. colleague talk very briefly to us about what is the responsible way, because we never saw it in those years of Conservative government?