I am quite prepared to deal with the matter right now. I thank all hon. members for their interventions on this point.
When the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest got up, I thought he was going to be objecting to the headline in the article, which said--and it quoted his name which I will not do--that he “squeaks win as committee chairman”.
I thought his question of privilege would be that he was being accused of squeaking in when in fact I am sure he won handsomely. A very popular candidate, I am sure he did well in the election, and I thought that was going to be his point of order.
But I read the article in its entirety, and it says--the hon. member quoted part of it--that the hon. member for Saint John said, “Unfortunately, the committee decided not to follow the rules, leaving the Liberals following the rules”, and suggested that somehow this implicated the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker.
It does not say the Deputy Speaker did not follow the rules. There is no suggestion of impropriety on the part of the Deputy Speaker in anything the hon. member for Saint John says, so how that could reflect on the Chair, I do not know.
I did walk through the meeting before it got under way on my way from point a to point b , and I happened to go through rooms 208 and 209 to get back to the House for a vote. There was a number of members of the association there but the meeting had not started. I did not attend it and knew nothing of the hijinks and shenanigans that were alleged in this article until I read this, and alleged, as I said.
It said later in the article, however, “Usually, candidates have to file their candidacy 10 days before the vote, but at the meeting the committee decided to allow nominations from the floor”. So obviously the rules changed at the meeting. There was some grumbling about it from the hon. member for Saint John, but how this reflects on the privileges of hon. members or the Chair, I do not know.
The Deputy Speaker was there. I did not know that I had been asked. Apparently I was, if I take the word of the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest for that. I was busy that night; there was a vote in the House and then I had something else later. So I was not there, but the Deputy Speaker chaired the meeting. There is no complaint here in the article about the Deputy Speaker's work; just a complaint about the decision the committee made to change the rules.
I do not know how that affects the privileges of hon. members, so in my view, while I am sure the hon. member for New Brunswick Southwest feels the article was perhaps uncomplimentary, I think his real complaint should be that the headline was that he squeaked in as committee chair instead of the other, because of course I am sure that whatever happened he did very well in the election. We will consider that matter closed.
Does the hon. deputy government House leader have more to say on this subject?