Mr. Speaker, we are witnessing the amazing spectacle of cabinet ministers shirking their accountability and hiding behind the skirts of the parliamentary secretaries. Any time the government is in trouble, the parliamentary secretaries jump in front of the bullet.
The member for Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam in his PS role was forced to defend the Prime Minister on the Cadman affair. Every day he came up with inventive new ways to explain the tape, even if it meant sacrificing his own credibility.
Now it is the member for Nepean—Carleton, as parliamentary secretary for the Treasury Board. Every day in the House and on TV panels he loses a little more face on the Tory election expense scandal and a little more trust on his government's accountability, or lack thereof.
While ministers jet around holding photo ops, their poor parliamentary secretaries become the wearers of bad news. If the ministers do not want their cabinet jobs, perhaps they should stand aside.
At the very least, they should offer their underlings danger pay for serving so ineffectually as parliamentary secretaries.