Madam Speaker, I rise today to participate in debate on the concurrence motion that has been put forward by the NDP. For those who might be watching and are not fully aware of what happened in the House today, I would like to set the picture so they can appreciate what happened.
We originally had the Leader of the Opposition here, who was going to lead off on his opposition motion today. He came and he sat in his seat. He was flanked, in the perfect formation behind him to get the best camera angle, by his most loyal MPs. They sat there. They were all ready to go and we could see him getting ready. He was ready to kick off the day with his great speech that he probably conjured up in his mind while in the shower this morning. Then moments before he had the opportunity to rise to do that, and to have the excitement of his members behind him cheering him on endlessly, suddenly the NDP did to the Conservatives what they have been doing to the House for three months.
For three months now, the Conservatives have been putting up concurrence motions to filibuster and to prevent this House from doing any business. I must admit, I found it absolutely wild earlier when the member for Hastings—Lennox and Addington, my neighbour, challenged the government and the NDP on procedural tactics, when the Conservatives have been doing that for three solid months. The NDP did nothing more to the Leader of the Opposition and the Conservatives today than what the Conservatives have been doing for months. They just got a taste of their own medicine this morning. That is it.
It was quite a moment. I sat in my chair and saw that the Leader of the Opposition knew right away what happened. He jumped out of his seat and he marched right out of here, leaving the flank of MPs sitting behind him in the perfect formation absolutely bewildered. They had no idea what had just happened. The Leader of the Opposition did not bother telling them. He just marched right out of here because he knew exactly what had happened. He left them behind to wonder what possibly could have just occurred and why their great leader was not giving his amazing speech right now.
That is what happened. That is what the NDP did. Unfortunately, that is what this place has turned into. It has turned into a tit-for-tat. If they do something to us, we are going to do something to them. We are going to have procedural games here; we are going to have procedural games there. However, I will hand it to the NDP members for one thing. They brought forward an issue that is incredibly important in today's political context.
We have, regrettably, seen a regression, with the loudest voices out there, the voices that appear to be the most influential or incredibly influential, trying desperately to roll back the clock on women's rights. I said in a question earlier today that my mother participated in the movement to secure these rights back in the 1980s. I remember as a child wondering what she was doing and what that was all about, because I did not fully understand it. What I do know, and I fully understand today, is my wife benefited from that incredible work my mother's generation did and her mother's generation did.
Now, unfortunately, I am left wondering what the future holds for my daughter. I hear Conservatives, and I mean small-c conservatives and big-C Conservatives, talk about rolling back a woman's right to choose.