Mr. Speaker, I suspect some of my colleagues would wish that I plead guilty to that accusation.
The system in place is based on testing and qualification by public servants evaluating the lists of names submitted for census commissioner by contract persons and other sources from all members of the House of Commons.
The second process is with respect to the hiring of the census representatives. There are over 35,000 of these people across the country subject to a two stage testing process.
In reflection of the fact that members of Parliament from all parties expressed some frustration that not all the people they considered qualified had succeeded in being chosen as census commissioners, we have asked Statistics Canada to give priority to those candidates who were tested and proven to be qualified for the census representative position who were referred through the minister's office. That includes names given by members of Parliament other than members of the governing party.
I invite the hon. member to do this but he does not have much time.