Mr. Speaker, let us get this straight. We referred to a statement by the Deputy Prime Minister in which she said that the Advisory Council on the Status of Women was abolished because it was a hotbed of patronage, because these were order in council appointments, and that the best way to avoid that was to abolish the council. That is what we are talking about.
That being said, since, as the Deputy Prime Minister admitted, order in council appointments are partisan appointments and cabinet still insists on appointing the government's ethics counsellor, would the government not agree that it should change its approach, act on the opposition's request and have the
ethics counsellor appointed by the House of Commons instead of by order in council?