Mr. Speaker, they are quoting the Liberal gospel, which is that he who is without private pension stock funds hidden in a numbered company cast the first stone, and that we are all in this together. No, we are not. This is about the finance minister.
Far be it for me to ever defend the government of Stephen Harper. However, the Liberals are in such bad shape that they say, listen, these rules existed under Stephen Harper. Yes, but his finance minister never set up a numbered company to benefit personal financial interests. If he can follow the rules, why cannot the Liberals?
If these rules are in place for everyone, why is it that the member from Morneau Shepell saw such a huge opportunity? He had a loophole to interfere and change the pension laws to benefit the company he comes from. He could also deal with tax havens in Barbados for the personal benefit of his company by setting up a separate corporation to handle all his finances.
Nobody in the day of Stephen Harper thought of doing something like that, so why is it suddenly acceptable that this finance minister has made such an egregious breach of the rules?