Mr. Speaker, first, the point needs to be clearly made that what the government has in mind is not an independent ethics commissioner. The commissioner will be appointed by the Prime Minister, report to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister will have the whole say about how cabinet ministers are dealt with, and the cabinet ministers are the problem. Let us not talk about an independent ethics commissioner because the government has no such thing in mind.
Last week the government brought forward a throne speech. What is a throne speech? It is a new agenda for the government: new Prime Minister, new agenda. Now we see that there is nothing new about this at all. It is not a new agenda. What the government is doing is fighting tooth and nail to bring back the old agenda, the old, tired, worn out, discredited agenda that this same bunch of people tried to push through for the last few months. Now they are at it again. There is no new vision and there are no new ideas.
The most bizarre statement, in what surely is a bizarre day for the government, was when the House leader said that this was good for the people. Well let me tell the government House leader that democracy means rule by the people. That means that the people's representatives should have a say on what happens in this Parliament and that is exactly what this government is cutting off. It is chopping off the debate, the rule by the people through their representatives in the House. That is a shame and a disgrace.