Mr. Speaker, I will not refer to his absence. I will just say that if he were here he would have heard the full context of my comments and would know exactly what I had said and what point I was making directly and I think very relevantly focusing on this bill.
The point I was making, of course, is that the conduct of all members in the House as individuals reflects on the conduct of all of us as perceived by the public generally, and that this reflection of our own ethical conduct is very relevant to how legislation such as this bill will be perceived by the people in Yukon.
It is not enough to have good intentions. I am sure, as I said earlier, that the member opposite has great intentions. I believe that sincerely and I believe that of most members in the House, but certainly good intentions are not enough at these times. Perhaps there are good intentions in the awarding of untendered contracts, too, but the byproduct of that kind of behaviour is that it casts all of us in a negative light. I believe that. I think it is sad and unfortunate that this conduct, so reprehensible to so many of us here, is defended by some of the members opposite. Clearly one should not try to defend the indefensible. The violation of Treasury Board rules, clear and apparent as it has been done, and the continued defence of an ethics counsellor and the presence of an ethics counsellor in this country that is not accountable to Parliament, I think is also another issue that we should--