Madam Speaker, it is not infrequent in the House that we have a lot of sound and fury signifying not much. Unfortunately that is exactly what we just had from the member. There is an issue here of the integrity of the minister which is not in question by me. It was certainly not in question by the member for Calgary Southeast.
We are talking about the issue of how appropriate it was for the legislation to be introduced by the minister who has interests in shipping. The issue is that simple.
The irony is that the finance minister who gets to set the affairs of Canada, in particular the affairs related to taxation, is a good businessman who takes full advantage of all rules and decides to put assets offshore so he will not have to pay taxes like everyone else. The irony of the finance minister arranging his affairs in this way is not lost on the viewers of this program or on the readers of this transcript. The irony of the finance minister being able to do that with impunity speaks to the issue of the government's policies and indeed his policies.
I reject the assertions of the parliamentary secretary that the conflict of interest commissioner said that because there was no conflict there was no appearance of conflict. We remember that this commissioner was supposed to be the watchdog that would answer to parliament. The Prime Minister and the Liberal red book very clearly and unequivocally stated that the conflict of interest commissioner would be answerable to parliament, as he should be. However it is yet another Liberal broken promise because the conflict of interest commissioner is answerable to the Prime Minister. The watchdog becomes the lap dog of parliament. Therefore I am sorry but I take no—