Mr. Speaker, in 1987 Conservative cabinet minister Roch LaSalle held a $5,000 a head cocktail party in a private home for a group of business people with interests in his department.
The Liberal opposition declared this to be a conflict of interest and demanded the minister's resignation. Prime Minister Mulroney, that great guardian of public ethics, eventually asked LaSalle to resign.
In 1994 the Liberal heritage minister held a $2,000 a plate dinner at a private home for a group of business people with interests in his department. We demand his resignation and declare it to be a conflict of interest, but the Prime Minister denies there is any wrongdoing.
Will the Prime Minister now abandon this double standard and raise himself to the ethical standards of Brian Mulroney and demand the resignation of that minister?