Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to ask a more general question. You were saying that we currently have one of the more strict regimes in the world when it comes to fundraising goals. Do you think that this piece of legislation adequately addresses some of the holes we may have had in our fundraising rules? Do you think we need it to go further and be more strict?
There's a lot of talk about people just showing up at fundraisers and wanting to give all this money and saying, “Here, take it”, even though it's not a requirement for getting in. This is not my experience. When I throw a fundraiser, even if it is $200, I'm usually chasing people around for months afterwards. Sometimes there are a few who it's a year later before they get their cheques in. My experience has been, whether there's a minister there or not, you have to chase people around for a long time. People are not just willingly giving money. It's tough, and it's a part of the political reality that you have to fundraise. It's not my favourite part of this job, but in order to succeed and carry on serving people, it's a reality we all have to face.
Do you think this piece of legislation takes that into account and reaches a balance, or do you think we perhaps should have gone as far as Ontario's legislation? If we do make the rules that strict, could we have a whole bunch of other unintended consequences, where people are finding other means of doing things that perhaps create other problems?