Mr. Speaker, on the weekend, I talked to constituents and other Yellowknifers while I was shopping. People in this city, Mr. Speaker, are sick and tired of so-called consensus government. All MLAs sense it, and some Members are urging others to call a snap election hoping to cash in on this public disenchantment.
Mr. Speaker, no election, whenever it is held, will overcome the inherent weakness of our present system; a weakness which could be fixed if there was the political will to do it. Rather than tackle the structural impotence, Mr. Speaker, Members would prefer to gamble that the next time around will be better.
There's no guarantee that anything will be improved following a snap election, Mr. Speaker. The idea that the electoral process will bring about our salvation is absolute nonsense. The faces may change, but the complete lack of accountability between elections will remain. Instead of Joe Blow being bowled over, it will be Joe Blow's replacement worker.
I argued two years ago, Mr. Speaker, that there should be a spring election for very good, solid, practical, fiscal reasons. It would give a new government enough time to put a budget together before the winter session. That was not favoured by MLAs, and they argued against my wonderful reasoning that our act provides for fixed elections every four years and the public mandate is absolutely clear in the law. The public fully expect an election next fall and potential candidates are already making preparations with that in mind. If we wanted a spring election, we should have made that clear this summer and done it for good solid reasons. Any move to have a spring election very soon would be seen as opportunism and an attempt by MLAs to catch the opposition with their pants down and would be seen by many of the people in Yellowknife as complete sleazy tactics.
In my opinion, that strategy will backfire and the people who will suffer most are the present incumbents. The mess, if there is a mess, is, after all, the creation of the people who sit right here. The time would be better spent redeeming ourselves rather than gambling on another swift throw of the dice. I look forward with great anticipation to a debate on this subject in this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.