Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the right. hon. leader of the Conservative Party if he remembers a few things that occurred some years ago when the Conservatives were in power. He is referring to accountability to this parliament.
In 1988, Mr. Speaker, the year I believe when you were first elected to the House of Commons, parliament was recalled, sat, never tabled estimates, never was granted supply, adjourned, prorogued the session and then called for a Governor General's warrant without having asked this parliament for a cent.
That can hardly be reconciled with reforming parliament. That is something that was so retrograde that it went against every democratic principle. It was illegal a hundred years ago in the United Kingdom. That was done by former Prime Minister Mulroney at the time, and the right hon. member across was a member of his cabinet. They presumably approved the use of a Governor General's warrant when parliament had previously sat. That is what he and the right hon. member across did with his cabinet colleagues in 1988.
He may wish us to forget that but some of us have long memories. Does he recall I asked Dr. Harvie Andre, who was House leader at the time, a question about the estimates? The estimates had been tabled and not one minister appeared before a parliamentary committee to defend them. That was the Conservative Party of which he was a member. Why does the right hon. member fail to remember all of these things? Why does he pretend all of a sudden to be an advocate for parliamentary reform and accountability for this great institution? I could go on about several more like that.
The few examples of parliamentary reform that we have were co-authored by the hon. Jim McGrath. The right hon. member said parliament was not working at all. What would Jim McGrath think of a speech like that? We made some of those reforms. It was a Conservative who chaired the committee to have these done.