First of all, we're sympathetic to that, as opposed to saying, “You're trivializing the problem and get over it“. For anyone who wonders about those people who operate in the environment that we operate in on both sides of our, I'm going to say, partnership, they'll understand the meaning of that. It has been my experience without exception that people aren't in the business of public service as members to get rich or to accept gifts under the table. They're there to make a contribution and hopefully not get absolutely poor in the meantime because they have some pension rights and they have a fair salary. Beyond that, what do we do?
I've not been faced with the situation that you've described. I have said to people who have received gifts—not in an abundance of a Niagara Falls of gifts like this was—to just give it back or send a note thanking them and indicating them it's not something that you can accept: no offence, we know it's well intended, but, etc. That's worked.
What I have found is that dealing with caucus representatives is invaluable in terms of understanding what the caucuses themselves are prepared to think is reasonable treatment. Not that everybody has to come up with a homogenized solution, but everybody has this problem and everybody's solution is going to make a difference. We don't want to have solutions that are in search of a problem, but we want to make sure that when the problem arrives there is a response that seems to be uniform.
We have had situations arise where—as you do every day and we know this—people are giving you token gifts as a thank you simply for taking time out to come and speak to them. We understand that. It's part of what this country is all about. It's comity, it's appreciation of others, and it's courtesy. How does all of that translate in our real world?
At this very moment, for example, we're trying to deal with a situation where some members who have gone out and spoken at, I'm going to say, neutral audience situations have had said to them by the organizing committee of the event, “We would like to make a charitable donation in your name as opposed to giving you a trinket.” We've had members come forward and say, “Well, what do you think of that?” We're at the stage in that analysis where we're trying to figure out what the donor is like. Is the contribution going to be made to a registered charity? That's important. Who is the donor? Is the donor someone who would be seen objectively as being acceptable? What's the amount? Then the problem arises, “Well, I don't want to be embarrassed by having to ask what the amount is because that will be a reflection of whether they think I was worth it”. We're grappling with all of that.
In your situation, I would basically take everybody's grab bag gifts together and off it goes to the homeless shelter. Anybody that wants it there could take it. That's a practical solution. Throwing it out is another solution if you want to. I find that solution on humanitarian grounds to be less acceptable than the first one, but it's difficult.