Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for his very pertinent question.
When answering this question, we should consider that the names of the two contributors to the campaign fund were never released. The Globe and Mail reported the story. I am not going to repeat what it said, because we have no evidence.
However, we need only look at the main contributors to the Liberal and Tory campaign funds. When we see companies giving $500,000 and more, the reason is simple: you scratch my back and I will scratch yours. We always see the same donors, I agree, but these are people who are close to the Liberals.
My second point is that senior officials who were there at the time, including Pierre Gravel, the Deputy Minister of National Revenue, who was there in 1991, continued to work under the Liberal government as well. This means that to repudiate the decision made by Mr. Gravel in 1991 would have been tantamount to admitting it was a sign of incompetence to have kept someone like Pierre Gravel since 1993, when the Liberals came to power.