Mr. Chairman, the parliamentary secretary can read us all the excerpts from Marleau-Montpetit he likes, I would simply remind him of what he said himself—namely that generally speaking, and usually, this is what happens.
I would point out that when the party in power today was on this side of the House, it is the one that changed the rules and tradition by literally throwing out the Liberal parliamentary secretaries. They thought these people were merely the mouthpieces for the government on the committee and on the steering committee.
So I do not think the parliamentary secretary should be trying to teach us lessons by quoting Marleau-Montpetit. The people who now make up the government are the ones who changed the parliamentary tradition established by Marleau-Montpetit. They are the ones who wanted no parliamentary secretaries on the steering committee. I think my colleague from the government side should not be trying to teach any of the opposition parties lessons in this regard.