Mr. Speaker, it is important to ask the Minister of Democratic Institutions a question about democracy here in the House. Yesterday, there were Liberal members who did not show up to the industry committee because they were told to listen to the Prime Minister's speech. What ended up happening is we did not have quorum, and witnesses had to wait for over an hour.
When we finally reconvened, the Liberal members said they were basically told by the whip to listen to the Prime Minister here in the chamber, instead of attending our committee.
We had people who had flown in and people on video conference for the meeting. The subsequent result was that we could only have five minutes each for rounds of questioning with the witnesses. One of them was Ticketmaster, which I had a particular interest in hearing from with regard to consumer rights and protection.
I would like to ask the Minister of Democratic Institutions why the whip would insist members stay to listen, and why the party would not even send one Liberal member so we could have quorum and hear from witnesses. I would like her to comment on the expenses and time associated with this sham.