Mr. Speaker, I am only smiling a little, because that speech could have been given by Conservatives in the last Parliament when we in the opposition were trying to hold up some of their worst agenda.
The history of this is important. The member would do well to remember that her own government tried to kill this motion by punting it into non-existence. She can wave away, but it was only the intervention of the Speaker which overruled the Liberals' attempt to kill this motion in the first place that allowed us to talk about it at all. She can be as sanctimonious as she likes about respecting taxpayers.
Respect? My goodness, the Speaker of the House of Commons had to intervene with the Liberal government and say, “Whoa. Access to Parliament is incredibly important.” The Liberal Party tried to kill that motion in Parliament because it was interfering with the Liberals' machinations at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.
What is going on there? Let us talk about respect. The Liberals are trying to ram their changes to Parliament through without all-party agreement. If they want to stop the filibuster, if they want to stop the mess that is going on in the House, they should respect the traditions of Parliament, which prime ministers Pierre Trudeau, Chrétien, Mulroney, even Harper, respected. The Liberals came in saying that they were going to do better than even Stephen Harper. They should at least abide by that tradition.
If we are going to change the rules of the House, we have to do it together, because it is just too easy to break that tradition and then have majority governments force their will on Parliament. That is exactly what the Liberal Party is trying to do while it pretends that they are discussion papers and open conversations, and yet the Liberals will never at any point agree to one simple principle: that when we change this place, we should only do it together. That is a good principle that should be respected.