Madam Speaker, I will be very brief in the debate today and indicate I want to support the motion put forth by the leader of the Conservative Party.
I believe it is very important to have transparency in politics. I believe that the reports of the ethics commissioner, Mr. Wilson, should be made public and to their fullest extent possible. It is not a reflection on the former solicitor general. It is just a comment on the process.
The Canadian people expect total and complete transparency and openness by the parliamentarians whom they elect. There is a great deal of cynicism by a lot of people about our political process. If they do not divulge all the information when there is an investigation by the ethics commissioner, it hurts the whole process.
I wanted to make that brief comment and to say that I support the motion before the House today.
I hope that members across the way on the Liberal side will vote freely and independently on this as well. Too often we have votes in the House that do not reflect on how an individual member really feels. We have too many confidence votes and too few free votes. We are probably one of the most handcuffed parliaments in the world in terms of the power of the whips.
In the British Parliament at the height of her popularity Margaret Thatcher, and at the height of his popularity Tony Blair, both lost many votes in the House of Commons but their governments continued. They did not lose a confidence vote and they were re-elected in both cases.
In this House we almost always deem it a party line vote. This is one case where it does not have to apply. There is no reason a member of the government or the opposition cannot freely vote in accordance with his or her own wishes in terms of the substance of the motion by the member for Calgary Centre.
I just wanted to say that and hope that the House will agree with the motion and that the ethics commissioner's report will be fully, absolutely and totally available, that there will be total and complete transparency. That is what is needed in this case.
If I were the former solicitor general, I would be the first person in the House to get up and vote in favour of total and complete transparency in making public all the documentation.