April 11, 1939 (18th Parliament, 4th Session)

Hon. R. J. MANION (Leader of the Opposition):

Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the motion in a general way, and on a little different ground, although I should not like to oppose it to the extent of voting against it. At the present time we are sitting here four days of the week from three o'clock in the afternoon until eleven o'clock at night, and on Wednesdays we sit until sax o'clock. Shortly the proposal will be made that we sit in the mornings, and with that I personally have no particular quarrel. But I doubt whether by sitting here five evenings in the week we accomplish a bit more than we do by sitting four evenings. The reason I say that is this, I think it is not physically advisable that hon. members should be sitting here, as we shall be sitting shortly, from [Mr. E. Lapointe. I
eleven o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at night, and do it five days of the week. It does not give us time to recuperate to a certain extent from the long hours, and it puts the whole house in an irritable mood which is much more inclined to delay work than to advance it.
I do not wish in any way to delay the work of the house; in fact I am in favour of hurrying it along. At the same time I do not think Wednesday evening sittings as early in the session as this, having in mind the comparison made by the hon. member to my left, are going to help us along. I believe the matter might be held up another week before putting the motion into effect. I am really of the opinion-and perhaps I am speaking more medically than anything else -that we shall accomplish more by sitting four nights of the week than we would by sitting five.