Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the member on his speech. I think he is the first speaker tonight who we could listen to and not have to go to the order paper to check on what we were talking about. He made some very interesting points.
I want to mention a couple of things. He talked about his concern, and I think everyone would share his concern, about the politicization of the Clerk of the Privy Council.
I want to point out that the Clerk of the Privy Council provides advice to the Prime Minister on the machinery of government. That function includes orders in council when there are changes in ministers. The notion that because the Clerk of the Privy Council was somehow involved in the cabinet shuffle he is becoming political, is not entirely accurate in terms of the traditional role the Clerk of the Privy Council has undertaken. I do not think that is a strong enough argument to get at least myself to admit that we have crossed that line. However, the concern is valid. As are many of the concerns the member has raised.
I want to focus in on his comments on election financing. I am an MP who is fortunate enough to represent an area that is on the border. There are a number of issues where I must deal directly with my political counterpart in the United States. I have had a couple of very interesting discussions about the role that money plays in the electoral system there.
The congressman across the river from me, who represents roughly a similar geographical area, has three people on his staff who do nothing but raise money. We are talking about millions of dollars that have to go into war chests, which, incidentally, they can keep when they retire, which is a strange quirk of election law.
A couple of things concern me about the direction in which we are going now. In Ontario, where they mirror the federal ridings, they have increased the amount a candidate can spend in an election in my riding from roughly $70,000 to over $100,000. That takes participation in this process away from people who do not have access to that kind of cash. I echo the member's sentiments and would be interested in hearing his views on how election financing reform could work at the constituents' level.
The other thing that concerns me, and this is an issue in which the Leader of the Opposition is directly involved, is the court case that is trying to appeal the aspects of electoral law that limit third party spending.
We changed the Elections Act. It says that special interest groups cannot spend unlimited amounts of money at election time because the candidate then would have to counter that and that would just drive up the cost. It is certainly a concept that I support and I would be interested in the member's view on that specific topic.