Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts with the member in regard to his private member's bill, and specifically to his question. It is important that we recognize that gender equity is laudable and a necessary objective. It is one which we support wholeheartedly. In working toward this goal, however, we must select the most effective way to achieve it.
As all members know, the government has, with other parties of the House, formed a special committee. The member actually just made reference to that committee. It is mandated to examine a variety of reforms to our electoral system, such as preferential ballots and proportional representation. In other words, Canada's electoral system for the next election is still unknown. Under these circumstances, it is premature to impose a legislative quota, at best designed for the first past the post system.
With respect to the bill, it limits both the independence of parties with respect to their choice of candidates, but also with respect to their position on gender equity. For example, an all woman party aimed at increasing gender representation would be penalized and would have to limit opportunities for potential candidates.
I have had the opportunity to serve on election readiness committees and to get involved in many different capacities within my own political party. There are a number of ideas there. At the end of the day, what we want to see is gender parity. A lot of it depends on leadership. We have seen significant gains through our current Prime Minister, and we will continue to grow in this area. I was very proud of the fact, as I believe all Canadians were, that we had gender parity within the federal cabinet. It was the first time, and it has been acknowledged around the world.
There have been some very significant gains. From a very personal point of view, in the last provincial election my daughter, who is 24 years old, was elected to the Manitoba legislature. The Manitoba Liberal caucus, albeit small, is made up of three MLAs, two female members and Jon Gerrard. I know from personal experiences in the past we have had some very strong personalities of the female gender involved in politics.
I do not think the bill is appropriate at this stage, when we reflect on the resolution that we supported today looking at electoral reform, which I am anticipating will be passed and hopefully we will see a very exciting number of months ahead of us. I would really encourage the member to do what he can in terms of advocating what he believes is important not only to himself but to his constituents and the broader community, recognizing that he has brought forward a bill that might already be taken by some of these initiatives into potential consideration. I do not want to prejudge what the committee is going to be looking at, or the scope per se, but there are some objectives. For example, there were five listed off by the government.
There is an opportunity for the member to further explore his idea. At this point we are just not convinced that the bill he is referring to is the best tool to do that.