Mr. Speaker, my speech is going to change a little just because of what I heard this afternoon as part of this debate. I have to say that I am shocked and surprised that one of my colleagues would say that this building does not matter, that the House of Commons does not matter.
I think I am speaking for most of my colleagues in this room when I say that this is the greatest honour of my entire life to have been elected by my constituents three times to represent the residents of southern Alberta here in the House of Commons, whether it is in the Centre Block or here in West Block. I do not think there is a greater honour as Canadians to represent our friends, neighbours and business owners here as members of Parliament. I am curious what the colleague who said it does not matter told her constituents at the doors during the election in 2019: “Send me there if you want, but it does not really matter to me if I represent you.” Certainly, that is a very different message than the one I am getting from my constituents in Foothills. They elected me to represent them and do a job that they sent me to Ottawa to do, which is to speak for them when they are unable to do so, and that includes speaking for them here, as I am right now, in the House of Commons.
I found it interesting when a minister earlier today said that we are having a virtual Parliament and everything is going as it should. We are not having a virtual Parliament. We are having a committee meeting. It is not a virtual Parliament. It has nothing to do with Parliament. The Liberals are misleading Canadians by saying that we are going to have four days of virtual Parliament. No we are not. We are going to have four days of committee meetings in a committee of the whole, which is not the same as Parliament.
My constituents sent me here to do a very specific and important job in my mind. The Liberal government, with the assistance of other opposition parties, is allowing democracy to be circumnavigated. We are seeing democracy or government by press conference rather than democracy by elected officials representing 338 ridings across this country.
I agreed with the government when the pandemic first started that having a group of parliamentarians here in Ottawa was probably not the safest thing to do. Again, the same member of Parliament said that we are asking Canadians to go back to work. We want to do the same thing we are asking other Canadians to do, which is absolutely right. When I go to the grocery store in my riding, I see 15-year-old kids in there working. Yet, for some reason, those members do not feel it is appropriate that I come here to work and represent my constituents as we are right now, safely, with 50 or 60 members of Parliament in here doing the job that we were elected to do.
Mr. Speaker, I see my time is running out. I look forward to continuing this debate tomorrow.