Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you kindly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One goes to the mandate in terms of the scope of work, so to speak, and of course the very specific matter is to have two national debates in the two official languages, and then, beyond that, to encourage other debates of other kinds. There is an educational element to it, which

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have not. The word “independent” in the mandate I think is an important one. I think it's respected by the government and is one that I think will be comforting to me and my colleagues. That said, the first place we'll go will be Treasury Board guidelines for various expenditur

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First of all, I'll go to the mandate in terms of how that advisory board is described. In fact, there are criteria there that indicate the kind of experience one is looking for. The second is to consult thoughtfully and widely, beginning with this committee. Your views on more

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's only $5 for the “sir”. It's $10 or more for the “excellency”.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's the Scottish in me.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First, we have to work at it and we have to realize we're a country from coast to coast to coast. Second, I was so struck in the first year of my time in office—in the first year, you visit the 13 different capitals of the country. We were in Yellowknife, and in the legislative

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You have three questions there. I had a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister's Office and then had two conversations with Minister Gould. That is point one. Point two, somewhere in that process I saw the draft mandate as written and it looked to me to be clear. I was

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'd say three or four things. One is that things have changed a lot since 1979, 1984 and 1987, when I was last actively involved. Two, I'll be very interested in the request for proposals process to see how broad, imaginative, inclusive and wise they are in meeting what you and

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One very specific one was as a moderator. I used to do a lot of labour arbitration and conciliation and served as a commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission. You're always trying to be extremely balanced, measured and follow a fairly clear set of rules with no deviation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's only $5 for the “sir”.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Reach out, reach out. My grandmother used to say, “You have two ears, two eyes and only one mouth for a reason. Listen, watch and then maybe speak.” Sometimes people think it's trite, but it's very meaningful to me that all the important things in life I have learned from my ch

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I think one could spin out probably three or four novels from that.