Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, for whom I have a deep respect as one of my colleagues on the democracy caucus and who is now in fact its chair.
It is a valid point. From one island to the other, I have said this before and have taken flack for it, but I will say it again, that if members cannot stand in the House of Commons and speak for 10 minutes without notes, they probably should not be here. It is as simple as that. We are led by passion. We are led by the size of our hearts and how we deal with these issues. If we constantly stand and read speeches from the department, whose fault is that? It is actually ours. It is our fault because we allow ourselves to do that.
I do not diminish the role of people in the departments who do this. It has to happen at some point, which parliamentary secretaries and others are keen to do because that is their job, but it is our fault when we do not.