I think it is very instructive to the broader public discussion on this issue that you, as a member of the Liberal Party, have admitted that Liberal Party candidates have engaged in in-and-out transfers. That is exactly the offence about which this committee is attempting to persecute the Conservatives, so I find it very interesting that you have made that acknowledgement.
The reason I'm giving these examples, Chair, is because the amendment that you have permitted opens the door to discussions about the ethical practices of “other parties”, and in order for me to argue in favour of such an amendment, I have to give some examples of the ethical practices of “other parties”.
With your permission, I will go on. I will take under advisement the point you've made about how I have, ad nauseam and systemically, proven the prolific effort to undertake in-and-out transfers in the Liberal Party. I thank you for your blunt and frank admission of the aforementioned statement, and I will turn to the next part of my binder, in which I look at examples of where the Bloc Québécois engaged in these same ethical practices.
Of course, the Bloc Québécois invented the so-called “in and out” method. They created the term to describe their own practices. This is why it is said that the leader of the Bloc Québécois is the father of the “in and out”. I think I heard someone say he is the sugar daddy of the “in and out”. He invented the process.
Indeed, the Bloc Québécois required all of its candidates, by contract, to use the “in and out” method. One of the candidates -- I think his name was Jean-Paul Marchand -- sued the party because he opposed this practice. Mr. Marchand was able to prove in court that the Bloc Québécois invented this system, used it and required all of its candidates by contract to use it.
Mr. Chair, this is what someone had to say about this:
Advertising campaigns are part of national expenditures, just as the planes and buses chartered for media representatives. They are costly. The Bloc advances the funds but, technically, each candidate assumes part of the cost.
Who do you think said this? It was the whip of the Bloc Québécois, Mr. Michel Guimond. He candidly and publicly said to the Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil, in December 2001, that local candidates had to provide money to pay for the leader's air travel and for bus and advertising costs. I have never met a candidate who needed a bus, a plane and advertising at the same time. Obviously, these were national, not local expenditures.
Mr. Chair, the Bloc Québécois chose to use this practice but Elections Canada is not investigating them. This goes far beyond what the Conservative Party did. I can sense some anxiety among our friends from the Bloc.