Mr. Speaker, I had some hope that it was going to wrap back into the nomination process and how we select our officers of Parliament. My disappointment is because I know my friend thinks long and deeply about these things, and I was hoping for his thoughts, comments, and insights on the particular process we have suggested today.
By everyone's account, we have a problem here in terms of the way the Liberals have nominated people. Their first nomination to an officer of Parliament did not go well. Maybe he has a different version of events, but the one I witnessed, and many Canadians witnessed, was that the Liberals nominated someone who by definition would be in a conflict of interest because of partisan interests, and officers of Parliament must remain non-partisan and impartial to do their work effectively. The Liberals broke that tradition and nominated someone who was partisan, who had donated to the Prime Minister's campaign, who had been a long-serving Liberal, and donated generally speaking.
She said she was going to apply to the Senate but realized she was too partisan for that particular role. She said she would be in a conflict of interest and could not investigate the Prime Minister. We cannot do that.
The process we have suggested is straightforward. It is to allow a nomination to go to a committee made up of one member of each of the recognized parties, who would be allowed to look at the candidate and clearly vet any of those types of problems. The committee's decision would then be returned back to the House, as it should, for a vote by all parliamentarians, because these officers can only be hired and fired by Parliament. That is the proposal at hand.
The one concern the government has raised today, the only one we have heard, is that it wants even rejected applicants to be returned back for a vote in the House. This is something we have publicly said we are open to. Now that we have removed that one problem the Liberal House leader and other Liberal members have offered up, is my friend open to this process to help fix the problem that is obvious to everyone and impart upon Parliament and Canadians an officer of Parliament who can truly work for all parliamentarians, with no conflict of interest, and no cloud of partisanship? Is he supportive of the proposal today?
As a side note, I share his many positive thoughts about the Chief Justice.