Mr. Speaker, what the minister did was to advise the press that he was going to make a speech somewhere. It is exactly what the Reform leader, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois and others do every week. The press gallery is informed of where we are going. Sometimes they are happy to come, sometimes they are not happy to come, but at least they want to be informed.
It was not a letter asking people for contributions. It was to say to our friends in the press that the minister was making a speech that night. If they accepted the invitation, I am sure they would have listened to a nice speech and they would have learned a lot.