The hon. member for the Alliance says that we are the extreme. However, even in today's motion its members could not state the facts in a truthful way.
We heard the former leader of the opposition get up today and complain that I had used a letter referring to his desire to receive funds under a sponsorship program claiming that his request had not been accepted when in fact it is still under consideration. Let us put that in the context in which it arose and why I raised it.
I raised it because somehow or other the members of the Alliance Party thought it was wrong for me, as the member of parliament for Ottawa South, to write a letter supporting the Ottawa Tulip Festival. Is the tulip festival a scandal? In what way did I personally benefit from that? One hon. member said that I did it for self-aggrandizement.
If the hon. members over there think it is a scandal for a member of parliament to seek self-aggrandizement, I think we had better have a pretty big dock for all the criminals to sit on after watching them outside the Chamber after question period parading around down on the market.
The time has come for us to put a bit of limitation on what people say in this place. We must respect the traditions of parliament that suggest decorum and responsibility ought to be reflected in here. This debate has gone well beyond the questions of proper governance. It has gone into questions of allegation and of guilt by association. I do not think it meets any of the minimal norms of parliamentary behaviour.
I urge you, Mr. Speaker, to listen very carefully to the language being used in here to ensure it reflects the proper values of this place.