Mr. Speaker, I want to begin my remarks in opposition to this motion by reminding each and every one of us that we are elected here as members of Parliament to do a job, and that a significant part of that job is to listen attentively to our constituents, to bring their comments and priorities back to this House, and to debate and advance them in meaningful ways by delivering results.
A motion like the one that has been put forward by the opposition this morning is not about elevating ethical standards. It is about obstructing the meaningful delivery of the results that this government is working on, day in and day out. When the opposition members heckle us and say, “Why not just vote?”, we are not going to surrender to an opposition motion that has more than a poison pill in it, which has been debated vigorously in many other failed attempts by the opposition Conservatives to stop the priorities of the people from being advanced to this House. We on this side are going to continue to defend them.
During the last two non-sitting weeks, like many other members in this chamber, I went out and knocked on doors, and met with business leaders and students. It may come as a bit of a shock to some of my Conservative friends and colleagues, but not a single one of them raised the subject of this motion.
My constituents were asking about the economy. They were asking about how we are going to continue to create jobs at a record pace. They were asking about our relationship with our good friends south of the border, and NAFTA. They were asking about how we are going to continue to keep the privacy of Canadians safe in light of the many important and significant developments we have seen in social media. They were asking how we are going to keep to our campaign commitments to protect our communities and rid them of gun violence, and this is something I have spoken on very recently in this House.
They also asked how we are going to protect the environment and develop our natural resources in a way that is sustainable. They asked how we can do more to provide support for our veterans, which I know is something my colleague from Newfoundland and Labrador, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, is working on every day. Last, they asked how this government can make improvements to ensure that every Canadian gets access to the justice he or she deserves.
For all the noise we hear in this chamber, I know I am not the only one who is discouraged by the way the debate has been oversimplified and become redundant and non-productive through the repetitious, mechanistic way in which we approach question period. Notwithstanding all those efforts at obstruction and impeding progress, I know this government has done incredible work and is making significant progress on the priorities I just stated.
How do we know that? Let us look at the economy. We have record job growth.