Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the committee. It's a pleasure.
I notice many other members of this committee have had an opportunity to meet you before, and as I said just a few moments ago, it's my first opportunity. I am a big fan. I do want to point out what I'm sure many other parliamentarians and Canadians have said in past years, that you have, I believe rightfully so, the reputation of being somewhat of a Canadian hero for all of the work you did in the sponsorship scandal. Quite frankly, I think the work you did there is not only laudable, but I think it was the genesis for what we are dealing with right now. So thank you. I'm very pleased to see Canadian taxpayers' interests are being served so well.
The questions I did have, have already been addressed by other members of the committee, but I do want to ask you one more that I'm curious about. It's on the appointment process, where you have suggested that you were in favour--and please correct me if I'm wrong--of having a secret ballot in the process of appointing your position, because you feel that if the actual vote count were known, and those who opposed perhaps the appointment of a particular Auditor General were known, it might have an adverse impact on the ability of the Auditor General to perform his or her duties. The counter argument to a secret ballot, of course...and I'm sure probably some on this committee would say, well, I believe in the concept of stand and be counted; it's important for our constituents to know how we vote on issues, particularly with appointments of officers of Parliament.
So I'd just like you to comment on your belief that a secret ballot is the way. How adversely would your ability to do your job be impacted if you knew that, say, 40% of parliamentarians perhaps did not vote in favour of a specific appointment?