Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for being here.
I have some questions for Mr. Lynch. In 2006 Prime Minister Harper promised to end patronage appointments. He said he wanted an independent commission to select appointees based on their experience, not their political ties, yet in the years since then we have seen nothing but the opposite to be true. The Prime Minister has continued to stack boards, commissions, the Senate, the courts, etc., with well-connected Conservatives. My question--