Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I hope it will change. The government certainly has to change if we are to renew public confidence in democracy, as he suggests.
The fact is that he came to this country and his constituents are better for his decision to come to Alberta and to serve in the House of Commons. It is the commitment of members of parliament who come here with lofty ideals and hope to represent their constituents ethically and forcefully, to do so within some semblance of accountability.
I was at the swearing in ceremony this morning of the new member for Gander--Grand Falls. In the commitment that is made as a new member of parliament one is asked to serve faithfully Her Majesty The Queen in right of Canada. The government and the Prime Minister, through their actions, have broken that faith. They have broken that public trust.
So what hope is there, the member asks? There is an opportunity for there to be an accounting and it is on election day. Until that time it is the responsibility of the member who asked the question and members here on the opposite side to not just throw baseless allegations.
These are factual scenarios. What happened with the public works minister and his family stay at the chalet is factual. This is not a creation of the opposition. It was a decision, a very poor one, that the minister made. Instead of taking responsibility for it, instead of saying yes, it was wrong, there is an immediate attempt to justify it. To bring in a parish priest to somehow justify a minister's actions is a new low.
As far as the member's commentary on the previous government, sure, there should be some willingness to admit that it did not do everything right. It was an activist government that made big policy changes in this country and invested political capital in doing so. I will say one other thing about that government. When things happened, when decisions that were made were poor, were wrong, ministers resigned. That government had accountability. It took responsibility for its actions. That, at the very least, is within the tradition of ministerial responsibility. That is missing on that side of the House today.