Mr. Murphy, first of all, the question isn't about taking money out of politics; it's taking large donations of money from single individuals out of politics, and that I think the bill does.
All I can say in defence of my own party is the ads our party would have used during an election campaign were all funded, Mr. Murphy. You can go to the Elections Canada website and see—all small donations from individual Canadians.
Since Bill C-24 was enacted, which restricted corporate donations entirely to political parties, so that the national parties were left to receive money only from individual Canadians, the Conservative Party of Canada has received donations from in excess of 250,000 individual Canadians. The average donation, Mr. Murphy, is around $100.
So all the money that was used, other than the public money Parliament has decided to give to the parties as well.... All the expenses of our party have been funded either by small, individual Ma and Pa Kettles in Orillia, if I may use that riding, giving small donations to our party, or taxpayers' money as mandated by Parliament.
There are no big money contributions in any of that, certainly not under Bill C-24, and even more so under this bill. That would be my defence of that.
It's not a question of taking money entirely out of politics. There is money in politics. Parliament has mandated that there be public money and is now mandating that individual Canadians can make small, individual contributions as part of their role as citizens and residents of Canada. I don't see a contradiction at all.