In a pinch...what difference does it make whether a person is an executive assistant to an opposition critic or leader of the opposition, and then, after the government changes, is allowed to lobby the same people he or she worked with for eight or ten years--I'm keeping it hypothetical, of course, Mr. Chairman, pursuant to your direction--or whether they've been in government and leave government? What difference does it make?
Surely it's the influence, and not who they worked for and what paycheque they received. Do you see a conflict of interest as much proscribed prospectively here as there would be for someone who's been so close to someone who is now in power?