Madam Speaker, my distinguished colleague from Oak Ridges, who describes himself as a teacher, has had much to say about youth, Canadian youth in particular. I would like to ask him a question.
As he is well aware, barely 4 percent of our electorate trusts politicians and many of that number are members of our own immediate families or friends of ours. However, our young people's trust in politicians is pretty close to 0 percent. In order to give Canadian young people more faith in parliaments and in elected representatives particularly, would the hon. member not agree to try to convince his colleagues in the Liberal party to propose a bill similar to the one in Quebec? This legislation would allow only voters to contribute to political parties, so big business would no longer be telling them what to do. Fundraisers would not be allowed to twist the arms of company CEOs in order to get $10,000, $20,000 or $100,000 in exchange for certain recompenses from the government.
I can see several Liberal members of this House who are nodding to indicate that they would be in agreement with such a bill. However, I would like to hear it from this hon. member's lips. Would he be agreeable to the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois joining forces to look at what is being done in Quebec in order to improve finances at the present time, not just government finances, but also those of the political parties?
When we see things like what we saw on last night's news—this morning, when I called my riding office, they reported a number of constituents' calls still coming in, along the lines of “Is that what is happening in our fine riding of Frontenac—Mégantic, as it is in Drummond and Trois-Rivières, where Liberal fundraisers are forcing company CEOs to pay up $10,000 or $20,000 if they want any recognition?” This is scandalous.
Surely the hon. member for Bourassa will want to rise in his place and—