Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the thoughtful comments that he has made today. He has used the phrase “smoke and mirrors” and I guess that is the nature of any legislation that is perceptual in nature. It tends to be accurately labelled as smoke and mirrors because it is dealing with a perceptual problem.
However, the perception of that problem is justified I think and has been justified by the numerous, shall we say, ethical lapses that have been raised not just by members on this side of the House, but in fact by some of the government's own members in reference to the conduct of others who may or may not now be with us in this chamber.
There is no doubt there is a need for this type of legislation. The question is regarding the effectiveness of such legislation. I think that is what the member has been alluding to. He has raised some important questions in his comments, but I would like to question him on one aspect of his comments.
He mentioned the potential, given the fact that the ethics officer would be appointed by the Prime Minister and accountable to the Prime Minister and so on, for an entrenched conflict of interest. Would he elaborate a little on what he means by an entrenched conflict of interest in that respect?