Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has never denied knowing that the sponsorship program existed. All members in this House, including many of the hon. member's colleagues opposite, knew about the program. The issue is whether things were going badly with the program or whether it was being mismanaged. As soon as the Auditor General's report was tabled in this House, the Prime Minister called for a commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of this matter. That is what we are doing. We recommend that the hon. members opposite be a little patient and allow the commission to do its work and come to its own conclusions.
In the House of Commons on October 29th, 2004. See this statement in context.