Thank you.
What I will come back to, of course, is getting started on the right foot. You mentioned the prime concern of any appointment process or individual being qualifications. I note that my opposition members don't like us to go down this path, but when a gentleman's name was put forward for the director of public appointments, Gwyn Morgan, at that particular time I took some serious offence to my colleague across the floor, Mr. Silva, actually naming Mr. Morgan as a radical. I find that literally unbelievable. Here we have a gentleman whose credentials speak for themselves. He's CEO of the year in Canada. He's recognized not by government but by his peers as one of the most capable CEOs in the history of this country. He's recognized not only in this country but internationally. He offered to take the job for $1.
As you mentioned, it's very difficult to get qualified, capable people to step forward sometimes and be involved with the public purse when their options are so much greater in the private sector, which this gentleman's obviously are. Yet I was on that committee and we were listening to the testimony, and literally I could not refute the man's capacity anywhere. His capability demonstrated a level of humanity that most people didn't even know he was associated with. He had a tremendous amount of personal generosity, not only to employees and employers but to the general community as well. He demonstrated to me, as maybe almost the prime element of a perfect candidate, in addition to his capacity and qualifications, a complete love of country and a passion and a commitment to serve. Yet in this committee we really got started off on the wrong foot, because this then became a partisan issue, unfortunately. We then, in the judgment of the opposition, deemed this individual not acceptable. To defame a person of that integrity and character, honestly, it blew me away. I do want that on the record.