I'll never live that down. There isn't that much time left in my life.
Two things if I might.... First of all, my first reaction is basically the government is saying it's okay to play silly bugger with the leader of the official opposition, but the Prime Minister is protected, and you can't touch him. That's basically what he said.
But on a more specific technical point, I would also point out that Standing Order 108(3) allows PROC to study provisions of services and facilities to members. The CRG provides services to members, and we believe the PMO is doing the same thing, and therefore we believe that it makes every sense in terms of fairness.
If we're going to go down this road with the official opposition, fair enough, let's go down the same road with the Prime Minister. Don't just start saying we can do whatever we want, slapping around the official opposition whenever it suits us, but you can't do anything with the Prime Minister of the government. It's all protected.
That's basically the argument, Chair. I would just say to you in terms of fundamental natural justice that it is not fair in terms of at least allowing me to make the argument and have a vote that would decide, rather than just a ruling from the government that says, “We're protected, and we'll go after the others whenever we choose.”
