Madam Speaker, I do not know whether the hon. member across the way has managed to convince himself, but he has certainly not convinced me.
I have been involved in transactions for twenty years, and I have sold shares like this. When there is a sale of shares that involves an unpaid balance of $300,000, normally guarantees are set out. Normally, such a contract would be a minimum of 20 pages.
However, if the member opposite claims to know the whole truth of the Prime Minister's saga, perhaps he could explain how the Prime Minister's company, a numbered company, bought from Consolidated Bathurst, at one point, nearly half the riding of Shawinigan for one dollar and other fair and reasonable considerations? Could he explain what these considerations were, he who claims to know every aspect of the Prime Minister's personal transactions?
I put this question to him, he who alleges difficulties in the case of certain members of other parties. This involves a contract worth $300,000 with a $300,000 balance of the selling price. It is true that the parties' intent is capital. It is true that it could be written on the corner of a napkin, as he says, except that generally there are guarantees.
If the member's logic holds, how is it that the Prime Minister intervened in the second sale in 1999, this time to support burdens more onerous than those contained in the first agreement of sale, which was an absolute sale, apparently in 1993?
If he no longer had them in 1993, how could he be party to the sale in 1999? This would be enough, if he is of good faith, to raise questions, and good ones, and try to come up with a response.