Mr. Speaker, I do not get my jollies by smearing people and I do not think that sets me above anybody in the Chamber. I do not think anybody in the Chamber really gets their jollies out of it. Sometimes we fall into the trap of doing it. I have fallen into that trap over the years myself, but that does not make it right.
Just now when I singled out an example of an earlier speaker in this debate-not only one speaker, two or three speakers-I did not name names. That would have defeated the point I was making that one smear does not justify a second smear because the thing just grows.
It seems to me, and I think I said it in my speech, that if people have concerns about the system and document those concerns-I recognize that some arithmetic has to be done-then those people have this label or those people do not have those qualifications. I submit that can be done without naming names and make the same point.
I would submit that the law of averages says that of all the people appointed, I dare say some of the 700 I mentioned just now cannot do their jobs. Of the 295 members of Parliament, probably some of them cannot do their job either. The law of averages takes care of those. Nobody is going to suggest that every one of the 700 appointments is absolutely brilliant. Some of them were, I would guess, clumsy, stunned appointments.
But that is different than saying that somebody is sitting here full time asking: "How can we warp the system so that only incompetent Liberals get all the jobs and nobody else will get any"? Well, if that is the thesis, prove it but do not smear people along the way.