Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Again, through the chair, the reason you haven't heard about the Elton override is that it's only about a month old. The Prime Minister actually told me some time ago that he wanted to be sure that the House of Commons' supremacy would rule in the end, and in a struggle to find o

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Madam Chair, to answer that question I have to say quite honestly that the only surprise I've had in being in the Senate since October is that they are, if anything, more partisan than the House of Commons. That surprised me. In fact, from conversations with some of the existing

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Well, our first choice there would be.... Excuse me, Madam Chair, am I supposed to address my answers through you or am I just supposed to speak to...?

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Okay. I'm sorry.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I should have asked about the protocol before I spoke, and I apologize to you.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Thank you. I have served on some committees in the Senate for a number of months now, and we don't go through the chair, so I apologize. To answer your question, sir, you were mentioning Quebec. We went through the negotiations in Charlottetown in 1992, and during those negotia

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I thank you very much for the question. We think the words “provincial political party” are extremely important, because that's the way the Alberta legislation was designed. Interestingly enough, the people who were designing it at the time wanted to prevent the Reform Party fro

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, we believe anything other than electing senators by their provinces and having them accepted by the Prime Minister would require a constitutional amendment at some point.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I believe so. It would be part of the package of deciding what the representation would be and what power should be left with the Senate. We went through that discussion in the Charlottetown accord negotiations a long time ago.

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Yes, you're correct in your assumption about Bill C-20. While I support it, and while the committee I chair supports the idea of Bill C-20 for electing senators, we're not in lockstep with the Prime Minister on the bill in terms of our suggestion of the possibility of two six-yea

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  I realize it's very precise right now, the way it is, and you're right about some of the words that were typed up. What the override would do would be to allow the Senate to retain the powers it now has. I'm sure you probably know the Senate has an absolute veto over anything com

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  It's almost my view of things. Let me clarify, first of all, that I have known the Prime Minister for over 20 years, I guess. He and I were guest speakers in Winnipeg when the Reform Party was founded. I should tell you that the triple-E committee has never been politically aff

Bill C-20 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It is interesting that you mentioned that it's been over 20 years. It's been almost exactly 20 years since I appeared before a committee of the House of Commons, a joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate, 20 years ago. Interesting