Mr. Speaker, when I posed an earlier question, the member talked about her profession as a teacher. Education is a provincial responsibility, so let me give a specific example.
New Democratic governments at the provincial level have brought in back-to-work legislation for teachers. The reason they did this, not once but on numerous occasions, was they felt it was in the best interests at the time. They were not saying they had lost confidence or as a political party they did not believe in the collective bargaining process. Rather, they recognized how important it was for the broader community as a whole.
We recognize as a government, as do other governments, at times we need to do this. It does not make any one of us on this side of the House happy that we have to do this. We do not want this.
Would the member not acknowledge that all recognized political parties inside the chamber, in one form or another, federal or provincial, have had to do this because it was for the good of the nation or the good of the province?