Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to take this opportunity to go on the record to do something I don't normally do, which is to agree with my Liberal friends across the way. I'm not interested in getting bogged down in this kind of hyper focused avenue of China. I think it would be naive for us to think that they are the only ones. I don't think it would be productive to spend all of our time in this kind of hyper focused way when, quite frankly, it has been my experience and observation in southern Ontario that there are plenty of foreign actors on the ground, from nomination processes all the way through to election days.
I think that for the public interest of this committee we ought not to get bogged down in the language either. I think the point has been made. It's certainly not a revelation that China was implicated in alleged interference in the last two elections, so I could see that as the bulk of our focus, given the last two elections and given their proximity to our own personal elections. But beyond that, I think it's important that the committee take the opportunity to expand the study and include any and every particular investigation or information that we might have, because ultimately the cynicism in this country, Mr. Chair, is only served by us pulling back the veil and having a full and frank discussion about it so that Canadians, when they go to the polls, know that they have engaged in a free and fair election.
In speaking with my good friend from the Bloc, René, that's how I understood his motion and the spirit of his motion. That's why I supported it. That's why I supported continuing this discussion. As important as the work we do around access to information and everything else is—it's very important work—the allegations of having some kind of interference and tampering with our democratic processes are I think a grave concern for all of us, so I'm hoping that we can just move forward.
I'm in support of the amendment. I could care less whether it talks about the United Front of the Chinese Communist government. We know that's the impetus for the study, but when we start talking about it, I think we're going to find that this goes well beyond just China.
Thank you.