The hon. member from the back row just alleged that we repealed some of the McGrath committee report. As far as I know the only reform that was repealed was the one to make committees larger than seven members. We did it because there was a five party condition in the House. Had we not done that the Conservative Party would not have had a seat on any committee.
I know something about it because in 1997 I authored that initiative to give his party representation on committees. If the right hon. member does not believe it perhaps he could talk to his House leader who knows a lot about that issue. However, I do not know what kind of terms they are on.
Today we could shrink the size of that committee back to what Mr. McGrath said. Who would stop us from doing that? What party would be against doing that if we proposed it right now? I will let members guess what party would lose out on that point.
I listened attentively to the right hon. member's speech. I had high respect for him when he was minister of foreign affairs. He did great things for the country and I acknowledge that. I listened to many of his speeches. I recognize what he did as a minister of national unity some years ago. I will agree that he did a good job then too. However, today he stood and recited some of these platitudes. The first thing I would do is fire the speech writer.