Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for bringing us back to the egregious loss of democracy in this place. I said earlier today, speaking to Bill C-31, that it is like Bruce Cockburn’s song, where he says, “But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse”. Every year, we seem to accept less and less democracy.
Back in 2009 when my last book came out, the late journalist Jim Travers was commenting on my book release on CBC. In answer to Michael Enright, who asked if there really were a crisis in Canadian democracy, Travers answered that it was worse than that, that you could visit Ottawa but what you would see was a democracy theme park. All the building were there, but Parliament was no longer respected.
Does my hon. colleague not feel that we need to reverse these trends before we really lose democracy altogether?
Charlie Angus: Mr. Speaker, I will respond with the lyrics of Bruce Cockburn. He said:
See they paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy….