Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be able to expand a little on the rationale behind why we may have to sit until midnight and I would like to know if my colleague shares my views.
Bill C-2 being about accountability, transparency and, I suppose, making manifest some ethical standards which in and of themselves may not be legislative issues, the principles can be realized within legislation. I know that my colleague shares my view that this is a noble pursuit and an admirable thing to be doing, but will she agree with me that the enemies of open government and accountability are in fact legion?
They are sprinkled throughout the senior bureaucracy. They are sprinkled throughout the permanent government in the Ottawa system. They transcend opposition from political parties. The opposition is ingrained in that very few senior bureaucrats, really, are big fans of open government and transparency. In fact, I challenge members to find one who really believes.
I remember watching the TV show Yes, Minister. It is a British comedy. Sir Humphrey says to the prime minister, “Mr. Prime Minister, you can have good government and you can have open government, but, sir, you cannot have both”. This is the worrisome sentiment that I sense percolating throughout much of Ottawa.
What worries me, and what I would like my colleague's views on, is that I do not think all the political parties understand how fragile an initiative like this really is, how easily it can be knocked off the rails, and how certain actions from certain parties, no matter how well intentioned, can in fact jeopardize and undermine the success of such an ambitious project.
I hear my colleague saying that naturally we are all willing to roll up our sleeves and work hard because we believe in the principles of accountability and transparency. I am sure my colleague wants to be able to tell the people of Quebec that the federal government is now in fact honest. I know my colleague believes that it is important to assure Quebeckers that federalism is in fact the face of honesty, transparency and accountability, not the face of corruption, maladministration and the misuse of funds. This particular bill gives her the opportunity to go home and be a champion of the federal state of Canada as an honest state with integrity.
She made her speech today about extra hours and how we are all willing to make sure this is the best bill it can possibly be, but perhaps the secondary benefit to Bill C-2, secondary to the restoration of the confidence of the main body politic of Canada, is the unity of Canada. The bill should have been subtitled “the unity bill”, because the biggest threat to Canadian unity is the legacy of corruption that the Liberal Party left us. I was losing confidence in federalism under the Liberal Party, so I can imagine how the people in Quebec felt, being the victims of the sponsorship scandal.
Will she agree with me that if we can convince Quebeckers that the new federal government will in fact be honest and will be stipulated to a set of ethical standards, standards we can be proud of instead of ashamed of, we will all be better off and the nation-state of Canada will move into the next century confident that we are on the right track?