Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which was really full of idealism for our parliamentary system.
Indeed, that system is highly commendable, and we must safeguard it from all forms of cynical attack. The member is quite right. I admire that. One can see that, after one year in this House, he hopes to take on work that will be meaningful to his constituents and all Canadians.
Nevertheless, I must remind him that, if there was a party that undermined the fundamental values of this Parliament, it was certainly his party, the Conservative government, which he was not part of at the time, thank God.
For example, that party constantly used the parliamentary process to introduce completely senseless bills in order to please a voter base that would receive emails saying that such and such was not good and that their rights were being defended on such and such an issue. It was using Parliament for partisan purposes. I should say in passing that it was not much better. In fact, it was quite awful and disgusting.
Here is the question I could ask my colleagues opposite. Is it not true that this state of affairs exists simply because those people are bluebloods who think they are above the law that they put forward themselves?