Madam Speaker, I would say first that change begins with the recognition that a problem exists. What we have heard in general tone from 1993 that everything is fine, that all mandates are being fulfilled and that there is no problem.
There has been an element of denial and a stiff upper lip. I will quote the Auditor General who said:
Even the best codes of conduct or conflict-of-interest guidelines could not protect Canadians from a government that was not fundamentally honest.
I think this is what gives parliamentarians pause, especially on the Liberal backbench when they are somewhat sometimes embarrassed by revelations from the opposition, and that is our role here. They do not see themselves as part of that either and they are not in the government. Yet they wonder, when they have come to the House with all the best of intentions and when Parliament is supposed to be the oversight of government, why these things continue to happen. We have to look for an inner or deeper ideology.
What is common in the news media of course is that the deepest principles of the Liberal Party are the latest poll rather than deep values which instruct future government policy and legislation.
We have to look deeply at what it means to be a Liberal as far as the inner cabinet is concerned and how it has delivered administration to the country. We have to look at whether that meets the high ethical standards which are the average sentiment of members of Parliament who come here believing they are going to serve the country truthfully and honestly.