Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has invested a lot of political capital in Michael Fortier. Mr. Fortier was the Prime Minister's Quebec campaign manager and party bagman.
With those qualifications he appointed him to the Senate and gave him a big job. That is primarily because the good people of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver had the good sense not to elect any Conservative MPs.
Then the Prime Minister and his flunkies went on a rant for 16 months about the Senate, all the while trying to impose an ill-conceived reform package on the upper chamber.
Is it too much to ask whether Mr. Fortier could at least come to work? Is this how he pays back the Prime Minister?
November 9, 2006 marked the first day that Mr. Fortier showed up in the chamber in order to vote. Pity the poor parliamentary secretary who has to carry the can for the minister. I wonder whether the minister checks in every few months with his parliamentary secretary just to see how things are going.
Apparently Mr. Fortier is going to run in the next election as a Conservative Party candidate. I wonder whether his work ethic will allow him to show up.