Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to deal with the situation we have in front of us and the severity of it as it relates to other positions appointed by Parliament.
The way it shakes out, at the end of the day, is the old patronage game, which casts a shadow across what has been taking place here in Ottawa, and not only here in Ottawa. Its tentacles go through the Liberal Party. One only has to look at the provincial Liberal Party in Ontario. A recent study showed that 33% of failed by-election candidates found employment with the Liberals soon after.
People who choose to put their names up for public service or an electoral position take a gamble for the things they may want to do and the issues they want to raise in representing people. There may be issues that are very challenging to get out there, issues that may not be as popular or that may go against corporate interests. What we have seen in this chamber is the return of the highest degree of arrogance with respect to the appointment process. That is what we had with the official languages situation.
I remember when I first came here in the good old days of the early 2000s, we had former MPs being appointed as ambassadors. Alfonso Gagliano was one of them. He was sent to Denmark to avoid the sponsorship scandal. These appointments can be very dangerous when it comes to democracy and can undermine the work of the House. When we read through the positions we are talking about here, they are crucial elements of our democracy. For example, I would not dismiss the importance of the ambassador to Denmark position.
The reality is that our official languages go to the heart of this nation. It is one of the things that makes us very strong, and it is especially pertinent to North America. Having the dual languages is critical not only for our social and cultural well-being but because it is a competitive advantage for Canada in the world.
Coming from a diverse, multilingual community, English is often a second language, but it is a dominant language. Given that we have so many people from different parts of the world and ethnic origins, it is a competitive advantage. The recent scandal with the situation of the Commissioner of Official Languages is a major setback, not for keeping things the way they used to be but for where we need to go.
My community has had a francophone culture for over 300 years. It is celebrating its tricentennial during my tenure as a member of Parliament. A lot of new Canadians who come in use the French language as a bridge to get to the English language. We have so many people from different countries who use French as a first, second, and sometimes a third language. When we talk to people who come from different parts of the world, especially from Europe, it is not uncommon for them to have three or four languages.
The positions we are talking about are critical for deciphering how we provide services and tools for our economy. I have talked many times about the border at Windsor-Detroit. The fact is, we have 10,000 trucks and 30,000 vehicles going through my region per day. What does that have to do with official languages? Well, we have high-paying jobs that we still strive to keep in the manufacturing and trucking industry, which go all the way from Quebec, in manufacturing for auto and aerospace, down to Mexico, and we need those services done well at the border.
Those rights protect not only the individual who wants to go and provide bilingual services at that point, but the interpretation is important for business because it allows the vehicles to move more smoothly and more economically. They are not stalled by a language barrier, which then costs us money. The delays affect everybody, and that certainly is not good for anybody, whether they are francophone, anglophone, or whatever it may be.
When we think about this position, it is not just a social and cultural issue, this is an economic issue by all means. We need to keep that seriousness in line. I am proud of our party for fighting so hard. When I got here, Yvon Godin from Acadie—Bathurst was here, and if members think I am loud, this is nothing compared with Yvon Godin. He had a built-in megaphone. He really brought to root the strength of having that francophone language as part of our foundation, and where we could built from.
This issue is not just an emotional one or a cultural one. It is an economic one, and people need to understand that. There are other officers who are affected if we do not deal with this properly, and we have seen the debacle that has taken place. We have the Chief Electoral Officer, the Auditor General, the Ethics Commissioner, Commissioner of Lobbying, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, the Clerk of the House, the parliamentary librarian, the parliamentary budget officer, the Information Commissioner, and the Privacy Commissioner.
Those positions should be filled without the past contributions and political baggage that is out there. We do have Canadians that fit those moulds. Unfortunately in this situation, it really showed the weakness, the know-it-all attitude that comes from the top of the Liberal Party and how it filters down here.
People can go to open media or read anything they want, and they will see that the House of Commons discourse is dominated by a few on the Liberal side because they do not let the others participate, or maybe those members do not want to participate. I do not know which it is. The mere fact is that the Liberals have stuck with the front row and the Prime Minister on this as opposed to working with everybody else in this chamber.
Those few in the cabal around the Prime Minister seem to have all the answers all the time in their instructions, versus working with the process that has been in place. That is notification and rules of engagement. We have a rules-based system that would have the Liberals go to the Conservatives and the New Democrats, in terms of consultation, using Parliament, and actually creating a working environment.
I do not just blame the Liberal backbenchers for this. We have a Prime Minister, quite frankly, who does not have the work experience in this place to know how to do the things that are necessary to build the foundation for working together, which he professes about day in and day out. He does not know that, because he did not do that work here.
I sat right here while the Prime Minister was here as the Liberal leader at that time and as a backbencher before. Did he do committee work? Did he do the work in the House of Commons? Did he work bi-partisan? For heaven's sake, the Prime Minister got selected number one in the lottery overall, he tabled a motion in the House of Commons, and he did not get it passed. It was on volunteerism. How could he create a motion on volunteerism in Canada, table it in this House of Commons, and not get it passed? That is unbelievable. It should be a Canadian moment.
This was a dream come true. As a member in this Parliament, he got number one in the lottery. If people at home do not understand this, if a member is selected, then he has won the lottery, and all he could come up with was a motion on volunteerism.
I will conclude with this. I do not blame all the Liberals. I think it is a lack of work experience. It is important, because these positions are important for our daily lives and our economics, not just our social and cultural exchanges.