Because of his independence, he took the Conservative Party to task a number of times. I have seen things, but this is something we absolutely have to discuss: an appointment like this has to have unanimous support. It doesn't, end of story. The only people on this committee who support this appointment belong to the Liberal Party of Canada.
How are you going to convince the opposition that Ms. Meilleur is the best person for the job?
We don't believe that.
How can we put her to work?
How can we sit here, across from her, without holding her political allegiance against her every time she appears before the committee?
Aside from her resume, too many aspects of this nomination make us question the process that your party, not ours, put in place. She has ties to the party, and the deeper we go, the more we find out.
I understand that you are defending your political party. We all do that. I know first-hand that one doesn't always agree with one's party. From 2006 to 2011, there were certain things I was forced to swallow. I didn't always agree with my party, but it was necessary to keep pushing on. However, when it came to defending the indefensible, I was able to stand up to my leader and say that I would be sick and simply not vote, and that's what I did. Mr. Harper would tell you as much if he were here. I was a bit rogue that way.
Likewise, I am going to stand up today against this appointment. If your party allows it to go ahead, you are going to end up with a problem on your hands. You can be sure that we will keep digging, and the more we do, the more you will be discredited. That isn't what we want to do, because we like you. We have tremendous respect for you, but this appointment today is hurting our committee's integrity. That's something I will never tolerate because our committee has always demonstrated integrity. This appointment will tarnish our committee's name and make it very difficult to do our work from here on out.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.