Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, coming from a long career based in public engagement before I came to this place, I know that when people say they are going to do public engagement, they must honour what they hear. We were very clear in the election platform that we would be improving our democr

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his devotion to this file. We know that in Canada, referenda fail. I presume that the member is keenly interested in improving our democratic institutions. I believe that probably one of the best ways to close the discussion on electoral

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, I understand that it can be very politically tempting to attribute various other reasons to the decision of the government not to proceed with electoral reform, but the fundamental truth is that there was no clear consensus. We worked very hard to hear from as many

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, of course I would never, and have never, disparaged the work of the committee or any Canadian who has participated. I know everyone would agree with that. There is nothing in what I said that would suggest otherwise. The committee report made the statement that no

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, the member has hit exactly on the areas in which there was great consensus through our public engagement process over the last year or so. Those are things like removing barriers to traditionally marginalized voters so they can get to the ballot box, through our wo

Committees of the House  Madam Speaker, thanks to the member opposite for his thoughtful and studied devotion to this topic over a long period of time. The member asserted in his interpretation that there was in fact consensus around the idea of a referendum in the special committee's report. I am not

Cannabis Act  Madam Speaker, I am rising today to speak to Bill C-45. I am honoured to contribute to the very thoughtful discussions that we have been having in this place and indeed beyond the House about the legalization and regulation of cannabis. I want to thank all of my colleagues for sh

Cannabis Act  Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for the question and his keen interest in this file as we move to improve the situation for all Canadian families and communities. The illegal drug trade flourishes through the use of the plastic bags that the member refers to, and that

Cannabis Act  Madam Speaker, there is very excellent Wi-Fi in the House here, and you could give it a try. What the task force heard across the country was very clear. The concerns were around the health and safety implications to our children of ingesting adulterated cannabis, and then the v

Cannabis Act  Madam Speaker, members from across the country will have heard stories in their own ridings about young people who thought they were buying an innocent amount of marijuana of a quality that could be trusted, and instead found themselves in an emergency room because they did not k

Canada Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I must say I find myself unsettled this evening by the creeping and insidious appearance of a tone of sanctimony in some of the comments coming from the other side of the House, particularly with regard to fundraising events and how tickets are purchased. Of course,

Canada Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for St. John's East for his dedication and hard work on this file. The new BFFs on this side of the House have been labouring mightily to fabricate concerns around these fundraisers really under two headings as I can see. First, the member for St

Main Estimates, 2017-18  Madam Speaker, after nearly a decade of partisan exploitation by the previous government, we are following through on our commitment to Canadians to build a more effective and less partisan Senate that works for everyone. Canadians elected our government on a promise of opennes

Main Estimates, 2017-18  Madam Speaker, right now we are extremely focused on engaging senators and improving both Houses. That is the path forward. Fundamental to that is this new process of merit-based appointments we have put in place. As these appointments continue, we will find that we have a Senate

Main Estimates, 2017-18  Madam Speaker, we are actually coming very close to gender parity in our Senate appointment process. It is a goal we in the House all hold closely. As we go through this merit-based process, based on fairness and accomplishments and geographic representation, I think we are going