Mr. Speaker, it is important to distinguish between the nomination and appointments process that our government has brought about and the one that was previously in place. We have made it quite clear, and I did as well in my earlier comments, that the spirit of openness, transparency, merit, and diversity are the fundamental values and principles at the core of the Government of Canada's new approach to appointments. Therefore, it is a helpful question, because it allows us to distinguish between what has gone on in the past and what is happening now, whether with respect to parliamentary appointments or judicial appointments.
Our government is steadfast in its belief that we can do a better job serving Canadians, and that the three branches of government, the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, can better reflect the public interests of Canadians if there is an appointments process that reflects their own diversity, their expectations for openness, and their expectations that a true merit-based process will be followed.