That is what this place is for, to call it as it is. Being in the official opposition in the last Parliament and not being there this Parliament, I think that what we can do in this place is to tell Canadians what is going on here. That has been a great role of the NDP in the past, to try to explain things to Canadians in an honest way. These two parties we can hardly tell apart, so it is up to us to explain.
This is disappointing. There is a difference also between these two parties, I have to say, in how they put their bills forward. In the last Parliament it was closure, ram it through, stack the Senate, and get it passed. I did not agree with it, but at least they knew what they were doing, and at least it was genuine in the sense that Prime Minister Harper and his cabinet would tell people what would happen, ram it down our throats, and then it was done. We could fight against it but at least we knew it was coming
On this side of the House, what we get is endless fake consultation. There is a wonderful article that was written in the late sixties about consultation. I remember a great mentor of mine, Professor Patrick Smith, was the first one to bring it to my attention. Really, there are different forms of consultation that can take place around bills or any kind of government business.
We can inform people about things. We can have a back-and-forth consultation. We can empower people. However, the worst thing the government can do is to manipulate people, to give them fake information, to make them think they are participating in something by having have them fill out little cards and mail them back in, or to complete cheesy online surveys, and then say that people have been consulted and then just go ahead with what it was planning to do anyway. The worst kind of participation is what the current government does; it is called therapy. What the Liberals are trying to do is to tell Canadians that they misunderstand, that their thinking is wrong and that it will cure them of their bad ideas. That is what is happening on their side of the House.
I would be remiss if I did not come back to things like pipelines. The Liberals promised throughout the election that there would be a brand new consultation process, with a very strict and thorough science and evidence-based review process to replace the one that was basically ruined by the Conservatives. They did not do that. Instead, they okayed pipelines based on the previous regime. Then they told Canadians they were wrong to be mad about it, they were wrong to tell first nations that not having consent was okay, and that they were wrong to think that consent was necessary. However, that is exactly what the other side is doing. Why? It is in order to get 10 bills through Parliament, six of which would not fail.
The incompetence that we are seeing from the Liberals is astounding, and I think it is showing in CETA. This bill is too important to get wrong. I think the Conservatives got it wrong. I said that in the last Parliament and I'll say it in this Parliament. We can debate that. However, the Liberals are not doing us justice and allowing us to stand up to have a full debate so they can answer our questions honestly without talking points. I think that is a problem.
I am happy to answer questions and give my suggestions as to how we might move forward in the new year.