Mr. Speaker, I rise on two points of orders which both relate to things that took place during Oral Question Period today.
Earlier the hon. member for Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore was chastised by you for using a prop in the House of Commons. Following that, a question was posed by the member for Mississauga South to the justice minister who basically advertised a book he had written so that all could see it and it would be on camera.
Given that the debate today on a point of order evolves around a perception of a lack of impartiality displayed by the Speaker, I think that also should have received a rebuke.
Second, in the last number of days the Speaker has disallowed several questions posed by the official opposition on the grounds that they were irrelevant to government policy. Today, the member for Brampton Centre questioned the finance minister on the implications of the Alberta tax move toward a single rate tax and never made any connection to government policy.
Neither the questioner nor the answerer, and I use the term loosely, made any effort. This appears to be an abuse of the time allotted to members for asking questions of national import of the government. That question should have been disallowed and we should have moved directly to the next questioner so we could get on with holding the government accountable for the use of taxpayer money.