Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague across the way missed the point. It is not that I do not have faith. Those of us within these walls have a high level of faith in one another across party lines. I do. I look at Liberal members and I do not see any reason to accuse them wholesale of wanting somehow to deceive the public. I do not observe that. From time to time allegations are made. I am not the one who has to have faith; it is the Canadian people.
Why was this section included in the red book if it was not as a response to the lack of faith Canadians have developed over the last number of years? I am sure they would be happiest if we said over the previous nine years before the last election. There is no doubt that Canadians in general have lost a lot of faith in government officials because of things that have gone on, things that have been exposed and things that have been wrong.
We need an ethics counsellor who is independent and is seen to be independent by the public so that he has real credibility when he makes the pronouncement that it is an innocent case. He should have total freedom and not in any way be perceived to be under any pressure from the Prime Minister or any cabinet minister when he is conducting an investigation so that he will be believed regardless of how he calls the investigation.