What is wrong with it is the respect for the institution. Out in British Columbia the most respected lieutenant governor we have ever had was David Lam. David Lam was respected because he did not have a long political pedigree. He was revered in British Columbia because he was exactly what this government does not understand. He was just a servant of the people, not a servant of the party.
If the Liberals followed that example, they would raise the esteem in all of these positions. Instead what they are doing is unfortunately dragging patronage down through the mud and casting that kind of stuff on to a position which should be above patronage. That is what is unfortunate.
It starts at the top. One of the very top patronage appointments is to the Senate. In 1990 the current Prime Minister said that within two years of the election of a Liberal government, the senators would be elected. That is what the current Prime Minister said in
- Of course he was in opposition so it was cheap talk I guess. That is what he promised.
Since the election of the Prime Minister there have been 18 to 20 Liberals appointed to the Senate in a row, one after the other. These were based not on their election to the Senate which was promised, based not on their willingness to represent their regional interests, but based totally on their ties to the Liberal Party.
When I went to the PC convention as an observer what did I find? The same thing as I would think I am going to find this weekend at the Liberal convention when I go as an observer. I like to observe this stuff. The chief fundraiser for the PC party is a senator. The chief campaign manager is a senator. The bagmen for the campaign are senators. The regional co-ordinators for the campaign are all senators. What does this mean? Those who have enough friends in the Senate can run their campaign teams on taxpayers' money which is exactly what they are doing. That is the Tories.
It will be interesting to see what is coming up here at the Liberal convention but it will be the same. This has been going on for so long that they know no other way to run a campaign but to appoint somebody who is their chief fundraiser, in this last case, from Quebec.
What does this do for national unity? The Bloc Quebecois look at that appointment and go back home and say to their constituents: "Look at this. This latest appointment is going to cost you several hundred thousand dollars a year. Who do you think it is? A Liberal hack appointed to the Senate". The people ask: "What were his or her qualifications? Is he or she going to represent Quebec?" The Bloc say: "Absolutely not. They represent the Liberal Party of Canada". It is no wonder the people of Quebec get mad. They have had enough of that. It has been going on for over 100 years and enough is enough. It is time to change the system of patronage appointments.
Just to follow up on another quote or two, the Prime Minister in a speech to the House of Commons in 1991 said: "To meet the hopes and dreams of those who live in the west and in the Atlantic, a reformed Senate is essential. It must be a Senate that is elected, effective and equitable". I sat here in the House and listened to the Prime Minister say: "I will put people in the Senate who represent the Liberal Party of Canada". He said that right from his chair, now that he is in power. It is no wonder that people find patronage appointments to be such a cynical display of government power.
The key appointment of them all from the government side is the person in charge of patronage appointments. When I tell people that, they cannot believe there is someone in charge of patronage appointments.
Penny Collenette is in charge of patronage appointments. She is a very capable woman. She is probably very capable at everything she does but the job is kind of odious. Her job is to find the over 2,200 patronage appointments that are available. Then she is to scour the country for every single available Liberal she can find to put them in there. That is the job. In other words, it is not to scour the country for the most capable person, it is to scour the country for the most Liberal of the Liberals and put them in a place. That is Penny Collenette's job.
I do not know how that is to build confidence in the government or the confidence from regions of the country that are looking to be represented by what they think are democratic means by fair and democratic systems. People find out instead that all the key positions go on people's pedigrees, their heritage, their political ties.
In Jeffrey Simpson's book about patronage he says: "The long march towards responsible government in British North America was largely the story of the elected representatives' struggle to wrest the right to dispense patronage from the British governors". This fight has been going on a long time. It is always the people at the top saying: "We know best and we know who to appoint and we, the benevolent dictators of the day, know what you deserve, you common folk, better than you know yourselves".
At one time every job in the country was a patronage job. Even the local postmaster was a patronage job. Everything was a patronage job because that is the way the system was run. Thankfully we have moved away from that and you can no longer get a job as a postmaster, I do not think or at least I hope not, because of your ties to the Liberal Party. But at the top where the example is being set, thousands of these jobs are still available.
I was in the maritimes during a couple of the byelections. I went door to door in Labrador. There is a separatism movement quite alive and well in Labrador right now. It is not separation from Canada that they want but separation from Newfoundland. They are fed up with the way Mr. Tobin is running things. There is quite a vibrant separatist movement and you try to calm them down and ask them to be part of Canada, to stay here as part of Canada. It is the same story we give the separatists in Quebec. Canada can be fixed. It can be better.
They would say that they would vote for us and some would give money, but they were afraid to put a sign on their lawn because the patronage system is so insidious in some of these towns that if they put a sign up they would go broke.