Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Toronto--Danforth for his speech. We are here today to consider the motion that the House consider the reports of the Auditor General presented in 2002. Much of the Auditor General's report was a scathing commentary on the Liberal government's approach to the way it manages the country and there were a lot of real concerns for the government within that report.
I do appreciate some of the comments the member made. It seems that to get any accountability around the House anymore, one either has to be entering a race or leaving the leadership. Some are leaving and they are considering changes to a system of financing political parties. Others who are coming in suddenly have come up with ideas for accountability to the House. We applaud those efforts.
Here is my concern. With a government that is in a position where it has the ability to spend, spend, spend without much accountability, we need checks and balances. In his speech, the member made it very clear that if he had his way every department would have its own auditor general who would be reporting to the people. I applaud him for those types of comments.
However, some members of the Liberal backbench have made some comments that are very disheartening. I think they are disheartening to certain members in the Liberal Party, they are disheartening to the opposition, and I think they are disheartening to all of Canada.
The member for Pickering--Ajax--Uxbridge and the member for Beauséjour--Petitcodiac dared to suggest that the Auditor General's audit on Groupaction was nothing more than a smear campaign. In an Ottawa Citizen story in May, the member for Pickering--Ajax--Uxbridge suggested that the Office of the Auditor General had become nothing more than a politicized position. I want to quote what our colleague on the Liberal side of the House said:
We want to make sure that going and doing her job is different than going on a witch-hunt...Is it truly an office that's independent or is it a political office?
When the opposition and all Canadians hear these types of comments coming from members on the backbenches of the governing party, what are Canadians to believe about the way the country is governed?