Madam Speaker, this is a rather sad spectacle. The leader of the fifth party talk about ethics. Let us do that. Let us talk about his $85,000 pension and $10 million party debt. Then he demanded another $200,000 to be leader of his party. Last year he got the lowest popular vote in history. He decreased his seats from 20 to 12 but he demanded $160,000 to top up his $130,000 salary. With all his money, perhaps he could retain his wife to advise him on conflict of interest.
The right hon. member's wife has some rather clear views on conflict of interest. She has said that the Progressive Conservative Party's new conflict of interest guidelines were “a massive intrusion” on her private life. Ms. McTeer, the wife of the right hon. member for Calgary Centre, went on to say when she was a candidate for the Conservative nomination in Carleton—Gloucester that the then proposed legislation causes a substantial loss of independence. The most shocking thing is that she said by requiring members of parliament and their spouses to declare their assets and their income, the legislation “somehow assumes we are dishonest”.
We agree with—