Mr. Speaker, let us get the scenario right. The appointment process served quite well for many years, because there was an understanding between parties that any officer of Parliament having to work for Parliament had to have the acceptance of all parties in the place to make it work.
The Liberals just recently, with the Commissioner of Official Languages, tried to put somebody in who, by her own admission, was of such a partisan nature that she would be in a conflict of interest and unable to perform her job; so partisan, in fact, that she could not apply for a Senate position, by her own admission.
We seek to change that by having something that would work better. The Liberals then say they have a problem with it. We say that we have heard the Liberals. The Conservatives make a suggestion to fix the problem. We now fix the problem, and what do Liberals do? They come up with another problem.
One steps back from this and says, “Hold on.” If all those words, “sunny ways” and “hope and hard work” and all that good stuff is to mean anything, then the Liberals actually have to walk the talk a little bit and meet us halfway.
I just heard my Liberal colleague ask how we protect the majority government from the ravages of the minority in this place. Is that how the Liberals approach human rights as well? How do we protect the majority from those minority people looking for their rights? The way this works is with a natural tension between the government and opposition. When it works well, we work together. That is the process we are suggesting. Officers of Parliament must be independent.
How important are these officers of Parliament in the roles and functions they perform, not just for Parliament but for Canadians to have any faith whatsoever in the role that government takes in all of our lives?