Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to certain petitions.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2008, with 39% of the vote.
Government Response To Petitions December 5th, 1994
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to certain petitions.
Questions On The Order Paper December 2nd, 1994
Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Government Response To Petitions December 2nd, 1994
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to certain petitions.
Questions On The Order Paper December 1st, 1994
Madam Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
Government Response To Petitions December 1st, 1994
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to five petitions.
Government Response To Petitions November 30th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to certain petitions.
Members Of Parliament Office Inventories November 29th, 1994
I am glad to hear that. I am told that is not the case in Alberta nor is it the case in British Columbia. If one province blocks it that is the end of the initiative.
The Prime Minister made the very wise promise when he was running in the election campaign in 1993 that he would not tinker with the Constitution of Canada. Canadians were sick and tired of constitutional tinkering. It cost us. It has almost broken our country up because of the tinkering of the former Prime Minister and his bumbling in that field. This Prime Minister has promised that he will deliver to Canadians what they want and that is anything but constitutional reform.
We will not get into Senate reform because it requires a constitutional change. To suggest that we should make the Senate a weak link in the parliamentary chain by refusing to fill the vacancies is silly nonsense.
The candidates that were put in the Senate this week are excellent candidates. They have excellent qualifications. The hon. member does a disservice when he refers to them as political hacks.
The former member for Ottawa-Vanier served a distinguished career as a member of a school board. He has been a chiropractor for many years, having received his doctorate in the chiropractic in 1953. He worked as a chiropractor for many years before he was elected to Parliament and did some during the time he was here. He has been an excellent MP and a leader in his community. Surely someone with those qualifications is a worthy appointee to the Senate of Canada.
Members Of Parliament Office Inventories November 29th, 1994
The hon. member says abolish it. He knows perfectly well that requires the unanimous consent of the provinces. He also knows perfectly well that some of the provinces, particularly in his part of Canada, are opposed to abolition of the Senate.
Members Of Parliament Office Inventories November 29th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to hear the member change his tune on the Senate. I can recall in the last Parliament when the GST was being debated his party moved a motion urging the Senate to defeat the GST bill. He voted for that motion. Unless he was absent that day, I am sure he did. His whole party supported it. It supported the Senate. It abandoned its longstanding policy of abolition of the Senate. Now I hear two of the members from that party squawking and complaining that really is not their policy. I wish the New Democratic Party would make up its mind.
I would like to deal on a more serious note with the issues raised by the hon. member. What he is asking the Prime Minister to do is frankly silly. He is asking the Prime Minister to ignore one of the constituent parts of Parliament. He knows that Parliament is composed of three elements: the Crown, the House and the Senate. He wants the Prime Minister to ignore the Senate and not fill it so the Senate is left as a sort of floating group of people that are there that were there before. Gradually it will diminish and become less effective simply because its members are not appointed any more and there are a whole bunch of vacancies.
Those left are still able to carry out all the functions of the Senate. One of the functions the Senate has is the right to review bills that are passed by this House. Indeed its concurrence is required on all bills passed by the House. The hon. member seems to have conveniently forgotten that. He is asking the Prime Minister to let a Tory rump in the Senate tell the House what it can do with its bills. I do not think any responsible Prime Minister could agree with such a thing.
The Conservative Party in the House of Commons, as he knows, was almost wiped out in the last election. It has but two members who are rarely here because they have other responsibilities apparently to try to rebuild the party. We are left trying
to run the Government of Canada dealing with a Conservative majority in the Senate.
Members Of Parliament Office Inventories November 29th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, the member has spoken to me about this and we are certainly happy to have the standing committee undertake a review of this matter.
I hope that hon. members who indicated they had a problem will come to the committee and tell the committee about their problems because the committee will be interested to hear them. If there is something that can be done to rectify the problem, I am sure the committee will make the appropriate recommendations.
Motion agreed to