Madam Speaker, some things never change in life. I have been here a long time and a politician in British Columbia a long time.
Members of the NDP get up in the House to talk about other parties. They talk about how nice and clean they are and how pure they are. Obviously the member has never read a paper from British Columbia or looked at what happened to his government in British Columbia, the New Democratic Party government.
Members who sat in this House who were members of that government were under investigation on charges of abusing public funds, the Commonwealth Nanaimo federation.
They used to fund all their constituency moneys through one account and run their bingo games, all for charity. It was fraudulent and they will pay the price.
It is unfortunate that we are debating this issue in the House today. The motion reads:
That this House condemns the attitude of the government, which refuses to introduce in-depth reform of the legislation on the financing of federal political parties even though the existing legislation allows for a wide range of abuses.
All parties in the House set down the regulations. We all go through the same list. When anyone donates more than $100 to any of us it is recorded and listed. Anybody can get the list.
If the people who made the abuses by offering to peddle influence are guilty and are charged, they will go to jail. If any member gets involved, it is unfortunate.
To try to label everybody in parliament with going out at election time to raise money and maybe buy political favours with it is very unfortunate in the Parliament of Canada. It is a disgrace to the Parliament of Canada that people make these kinds of speeches.