Thank you very much, Chair. I see that we're back at the same issue yet again. We have made several attempts to cover this subject matter off, and it has been habitually filibustered by government members. So this is again an attempt to express the wish of the majority of the committee that we move forward with this piece of information.
In a minority government we're all at the ready for an election that could happen at any time. In order that Canadians can hear the fullest part of this issue, this systematic in-and-out scheme that was done by only one party in the 2006 election, it is appropriate to hear from the Chief Electoral Officer as well as Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Martelli. They have been in the media expressing their unhappiness with the fact that in some instances former Conservative candidates felt they were actually compelled or coerced into going along with this scheme against their better judgment.
Clearly Elections Canada agrees that was not a good process, which is why they have refused to allow those expenses. As a result of that, the Conservative Party is overspending the national advertising campaign by about $1.2 million. Because we are in a minority government, we feel that time is of the essence. This gives us a reasonable start to this issue and we should begin forthwith.
So it would be a nice change of affairs if we actually got to vote on this today.