Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear many muted mutterings about the dangers of the Recall Act. Some people are talking as though it is an outlandish idea, even though it has been considered seriously as a contribution to the accountability of politicians.
I find it especially unusual that some of the mutterings are coming from Cabinet Ministers, not ordinary Members. I find this very unusual. The only people who are not subject to recall in this House, at the moment, are ordinary Members. I found general support among ordinary Members for the principle of the bill.
Every day when we are sitting in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, Cabinet Ministers are subject to recall. On any one day, a Member of Cabinet could be removed by a simple majority of Members in this Chamber. That is a form of recall. And I don't think it is unconstitutional, but maybe the government wants to look at that too. It is very simple, very transparent, all Members in the House can vote, there is no secret ballot. If the majority of Members want a Cabinet Minister to join the ranks of the ordinary Members, all Members have to do is to stick up their hands in support of the motion to remove a Minister and that Minister is history -- at least for the moment.
No one seems to question this practice. It seems to be accepted as an entrenched part of our system. Even in the various proposals to legislate more powers for the Premier, recall, unfortunately, would still exist. Even if she wanted to keep a Minister, there is nothing planned in the legislation to remove the power of the Members to still recall if they wanted to. We already have recall, at least the principle of it, Mr. Speaker, so I wonder why we're muttering about it.
Even in the legislation to give powers to the Premier to remove a Member, the House would still have to be brought together to choose a new Member and there would be nothing stopping Members from putting the same Member back into the Cabinet that the Premier just removed.
The only real power in this House is the will of the majority of the Members and that's the basic principle behind recall. Whoever gives you power has the right to take it away. The only way to be accountable in this Assembly would be to...