Mr. Speaker, I would like to address this motion which is related to a symbol that would represent the House of Commons and those who sit and work here.
First, I wish to acknowledge that I have seen the work performed and done by the member of Parliament who is presenting this particular motion. He is a member of the opposite party and, who knows, that may change over time. We see in this House of Commons that it does change from time to time when people walk across the floor. I will still acknowledge and be in hearty agreement with some of the things he has done.
However, I have to pose some questions about this particular motion. First, and this is entirely his business and he does not have to respond to this, is this something that this constituents are clamouring for?
Last week I was in my constituency. I heard about government corruption. I heard about the Auditor General's comment saying that the government is mired in the worst financial scandal in Canadian history. I heard about the fact that the government presented a budget at one point several months ago, to which my party gave somewhat tacit support. Then, when the government thought it might lose a confidence vote, it shifted its goal. The government shifted and in a dramatic change of events blew a $4.6 billion hole in the federal budget to buy 19 votes.
I suggest that from what we have seen in the last couple of weeks here, people would be selling their votes for a lot cheaper than $4.6 billion for 19 votes. If we believe certain polls that we are seeing about how people perceive members of Parliament and how they perceive the House of Commons, the symbolism is not good. The symbolism is one of people who cannot be trusted, of debate that does not matter, and of discussion that focuses on things that are not at the heart of the concerns of Canadians.
I know too often that members listen to their constituents selectively. MPs will have their own view on something and they will hear one or two people talk about that view and then say they are hearing that from their constituents.
I have not heard from one person across Canada who wants us to spend time and resources, however little that might be, on a symbol of this place. We are faced with all kinds of things. I cannot even say another letter poured in today because it has not happened.
What are we doing spending time and energy, and focus in this place on something that I for one, and as I am hearing from other of my colleagues, no Canadians are asking for? We need a symbol all right. We need a symbol of honesty and integrity, and one in which members are truly representing their constituents.
We do not need to spend time in this place to craft yet another symbol. There are symbols of this place. We have already heard of Parliament Hill, the Peace Tower and the mace. How many more symbols do we need? We have a much bigger problem in this country. It is a lack of confidence, not only in the government but in the political process in and of itself.
We have been seeing and hearing a lot in the news these days about the decorum in this place. When we look at history, and this is not condoning bad behaviour in this chamber, the demeaning personal attacks that take place from time to time, any first year student of parliamentary history will know that this place is always charged with emotion, name calling and sometimes insults. When we look back at what took place in this House even in the late 1800s, believe it or not but members of Parliament would come in here with bagpipes to drown out another speaker. Now I have heard some speeches in here that I would like to drown out with bagpipes.
There has been the throwing of food and at one point dead chickens across the floor to silence someone, and drunkenness was known to be almost an every day activity even by political leaders. I will not mention which party because it could diminish our history. We can go to the Liberal rat pack that supposedly terrorized and did outrageous things in this place. I am not condoning any bad behaviour in here.
Let us not go into some kind of septic shock at the fact that it has been contentious here in the last few weeks. Let us use the present concern as a way to tone things down, be more respectful, and talk about the issues that matter most to Canadians.
As everyone can see, I am restraining myself. I am not getting personal on this. I have acknowledged some of the previous good work done by this member of Parliament, but to spend time in this place talking about coming up with a symbol for the House of Commons, something that not one Canadian has asked for, to me is counterproductive at best. The symbol that Canadians want to see is one of respect and integrity.
Canadians understand there will always be divisive debate, robust, vigorous and sometimes fractious debate, but they want to see a symbol represented by human beings not something we are going to hang on a lapel or stick on a wall somewhere. It is a symbol of respect for the fact that citizens have elected us and sent us here to speak about the things that matter most to them. That is the symbol they want.
Even when there are issues that constituents may disagree with from time to time, at least they know there are men and women in this chamber who rise to speak about issues of importance. That alone will help to reinvigorate and restore the tremendous lack of confidence that they have in this government. Clearly, there is a lack of confidence in this government. We do not believe every poll we see. The ones that show us doing well as a political party are of course the very scientific ones and the ones that do not show us doing well are not that good.
It is disturbing to see the social indices that suggest, just as the results of the survey that came out today, that politicians may or may not return a wallet they find on the street. Canadians were asked which politicians they thought would return a wallet. That is a tremendous indictment in some ways, but it is understandable. If the government will not return $250 million in the biggest financial scandal in Canadian history, then why would Canadians think they would return a mere wallet they find kicking around?
These are the symbols that people are looking to. People are looking to each of us as members of Parliament and saying they do not want us to come up with something symbolic but to do something real that will restore a sense of integrity to this place.
An interesting poll came out today that asked who people trust. CBC did the poll and I am going to give the CBC 1 point out of 10, which I do not often do. It did acknowledge that people were also asked the question of how much trust they put in the media. Trust in the media actually had a very low rating too. They were sort of duking it out at around 11% with how much trust they have in members of Parliament. I appreciate that the media at least was being honest in acknowledging that there is not a whole lot of trust by the public in the media itself.
That brings us back to the issue of symbolism. Members of Parliament speaking with integrity, speaking about things that matter to their constituents, and doing that on a consistent basis will be the only thing that will turn around public perception. It is not a lapel pin with a backdrop of the Peace Tower saying “Trust Me” or “Vote for honest John” or “Vote for honest Mary”. It will be words, actions and follow-through on a consistent, daily basis, and not erratically from time to time standing up and giving some kind of pronouncement about wanting to serve our constituents.
With great respect for the member who brought this forward, I cannot vote for this motion. This time is designated and we have to use it, but I cannot vote for something that will have us spending more time and resources, however little, to give a symbol of this place when the symbol that Canadians are asking for are symbols of honesty, integrity, hard work, and speaking up on the things that matter most. I am not suggesting the member opposite lacks any of those qualities, but to divert time and attention to something so uncalled for by the Canadian public is just not worthy of our time here and I cannot support this motion.