Mr. Speaker, I would like to rise and address this issue of double dipping which my colleague did not mention in his speech. He said the gold-plated MP pension plan is number one on the hit list that Canadian taxpayers do not like. I am here to verify that because that is the attitude in Calgary Centre.
The hon. member should realize that double dipping is when a member of the same government gets an appointment. Joe Clark was double dipping because he got an appointment while he was receiving a pension from this government. If Joe Clark wished to run for the provincial legislature of Alberta then he would be welcome to continue to receive his pension plan from the federal government and work as a provincial MLA. That is not double dipping.
Double dipping is defined as getting an appointment by the same government that you serve. That is where the conflict of interest is. There is no conflict of interest if you work for a provincial party and then leave that party to run for a federal party. If you then run for a federal party, you tell the people in your riding you are running federally. If those people in the province of Alberta elect you with one of the strongest majorities, that is not double dipping. That is not getting an appointment from another level of government. That is going before the people, laying it on the table and being duly and freely elected.
Personally, I am getting sick and tired of the whining of the government about double dipping.
It says that it is going to do something about it. It has done nothing. I asked the Prime Minister in question period way back in January: When can we opt out of this gold-plated MP pension plan because many Reformers want to? He said: "Soon, soon, soon". He has done nothing. It is all talk. Talk is cheap but the interest on the deficit and the debt is not.