I'd like to follow up on some questions Mr. Angus asked.
We run for this office to represent our community. We get elected. We don't know if we're going to be in government or in opposition until all the votes are in and we find out who forms the government. Then some of us get phone calls from the Prime Minister of the day saying, congratulations, you're a member of cabinet. But you're still a member of Parliament representing your local community.
I know you've made some rulings. You've made some comments about someone who might be a cabinet minister or a parliamentary secretary, but they're also acting as a local member of Parliament in sending a letter of support for something. I write support letters all the time for my constituents who have an issue with a government department or something. I'm trying to be helpful and supportive, as their local member of Parliament. I would hate to think that just because the Prime Minister of the day said I'm now a parliamentary secretary or a cabinet minister that I wouldn't be able to operate with the same level of independence as a member of Parliament in standing up for my community.
Where do you find that balance, or is there any balance? Is it your view that the day you're in cabinet you can no longer do any of that to represent your own constituency? I can understand if you're the Minister of Industry writing a letter to the CRTC to support an application. I get that. I can see that's a clear conflict because you're the minister who oversees that. But if you're a minister who has nothing to do with that area or that branch of a government, I would find it difficult. I would find it difficult, as a member of Parliament, not to represent my constituents on an issue they were concerned about and say to them, sorry, I can't help you because I happen to be a cabinet minister.
Where do we draw that distinction? Where do we draw that line to have more clarity around this?