Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre for bringing this motion before the House for debate. It is a useful topic for debate and I am glad we have this opportunity for discussion.
However, listening to the hon. member for North Vancouver, it was one of the most extraordinary things I have heard in a while.
He came out with this policy of the Reform Party which is another case of do as I say but not as I do policies Reform spouts so often in the House.
We all know that during the last election the members of the Reform Party scooped their hands into the public till. Although they abhor the idea of public financing of elections, they all applied for the rebate they were entitled to get from the federal government. Then their party applied for its 22.5 per cent reimbursement which it is entitled to get from the federal treasury. The members had no reluctance about going after that money to the best of my recollection.
Now they say their policy is they will not take that kind of money. Yet according to the rumours I hear they have fundraisers from time to time. They issue tax receipts for those fundraisers the way other parties do even though they say their policy is they do not do that.
They say that is their policy but they do exactly the opposite. They do as much as any other party does to take advantage of the laws of Canada that give political parties advantage. Frankly, they ought to do that but not if they are saying their policy is different. It is what I would call hypocrisy, but I think it unparliamentary for me to say that a member of the House is hypocritical or a hypocrite. I would not do that. However, the Reform Party policy is very hypocritical on this matter.
Those members use the money in the most unorthodox ways like paying suit allowances of $30,000 a year to their leader so he can be properly dressed while he gives up the publicly paid car.