Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Lethbridge.
This is a difficult subject to speak about. We are spending the day talking about something that strikes at the very heart of Canadian values, of ethics, integrity, and accountability.
I will say right off that I am not a big fan of the Prime Minister. I am not a big fan of his policies. I am not a big fan of the debt and deficit, and all of the other things that go on. I certainly do not want to make this personal, but this strikes again at the heart of the Prime Minister's ethical standards, and the ethical standards of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Just over a year ago, the Prime Minister accepted a trip to the Aga Khan's island, and it was kept secret. Nobody knew about it except an inner circle within the Prime Minister's Office, and, as we found out later, some within the Privy Council Office, that this trip was being planned. It was not a trip that one could find on Expedia. It was not a trip that the Trivago guy could help one find for cheap. This was a trip to a registered lobbyist's island.
We have heard throughout the day some of my colleagues talk about the Aga Khan and the good work he does, and this is not to impugn him, his name, or his organization. It was the Prime Minister who put the Aga Khan in this position.
Why was the trip kept secret? It was because the Prime Minister knew it was wrong. Those around him in the Prime Minister's Office knew it was wrong, and those within the Privy Council knew it was wrong, but he did it anyway. He went on that trip. The challenge we have before us today is that we are going to spend a whole day talking about this, something that should never have happened.
This is a hallowed place. It is a place that I certainly revere for its history and for those who have come before us. However, I think most of us can agree, in any other workplace if this situation were to happen, the prime minister in that case would have been fired from his job. This would have been a fireable offence. However, we cannot fire the Prime Minister, as only the Canadian electorate can do that. What do we do as an opposition? What we do as a third party? We hold the government to account.
This is a government that ran on an issue of real change. The Liberals said they were going to be more accountable. They said they were going to be transparent. They said they were going to be different. Yet, we have a Prime Minister who clearly broke federal ethics laws within the first year of being in office. Why? It is because of the sense of entitlement that he has. It is the fact that he thinks he is better than everyone else in this place, and better than any other Canadian in this country. He feels that he can go around like the king of Canada and accept all of these things. How is this any different from accepting a brown envelope with $200,000?
I will remind members again that the Aga Khan is a registered lobbyist. If any other member of this place accepted what the Prime Minister accepted, we would be held to the same account, but he did not take responsibility. In spite of what government members are saying, that he has accepted responsibility, we have not heard any acceptance of responsibility because he does not think he did anything wrong. If that were the case and he thought he did anything wrong, he would pay the $200,000 that this trip cost back to taxpayers because he was found guilty.
I have listened to the debate today and Liberals talked about security costs. Nobody is questioning the extent of security that the Prime Minister requires when travelling on business. Nobody is questioning that. What Conservatives are questioning is the fact that the Prime Minister accepted an illegal trip that he ought to have known not to take. That is what cost taxpayers money and that is what we are asking be paid back.
There is a clear distinction between what his official duties are as Prime Minister and what the security requirements are as Prime Minister as opposed to accepting an illegal trip that the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner found to be illegal. It was not the opposition party that found that. It was not the third party. It was an independent officer of Parliament. That is why this is so important. If it were any other Canadian in any other place, workplace or otherwise, the expectation would be that he or she would pay this back. I do not think it is too much to ask of the Prime Minister to do that.
I say again that this is about not only respecting the institution of Parliament but respecting Canadians. Liberals were the ones who said they were going to do things differently, so I do not think it is too much to ask, as a member of the opposition, for the Prime Minister to pay that money back.
After the Ethics Commissioner found, back in December, just before Christmas, that the Prime Minister was in violation of four federal ethics laws, over the course of the next month and a half the opposition did not have an opportunity to question the Prime Minister. Since the House resumed, we have spent the majority of time in question period asking the Prime Minister, on behalf of Canadians, why he did it and why he is not paying the money back.
We have heard the same tired lines over and over again, that they accept responsibility and that they are going to follow the recommendations of the Ethics Commissioner. They were not recommendations. They were findings of guilt, and as a result of the findings of guilt, we, as the opposition, are asking the Prime Minister to pay that money back. Why is the Prime Minister not doing it? It would absolutely be the right thing to do. The Ethics Commissioner has no mandate to issue any fine or require the Prime Minister to pay the money back. Therefore, Conservatives are saying that it is up to the Prime Minister to pay that money back. It is his obligation to pay that money back.
The Ethics Commissioner also talked about the relationship with the Aga Khan and the fact that this relationship had not been renewed in 30 years. The Prime Minister stated that he was a friend of the family. Clearly, the Ethics Commissioner found that not to be true. There are a couple of members on the other side who I went to high school with, the science minister and the member for New Brunswick Southwest, and I would hardly classify them as friends. They are acquaintances from high school. It does not mean that I would use that as an example of friendship. I had not seen them in 30 years, until we were elected to this place. The same holds true for the Prime Minister with respect to the Aga Khan.
There are multitudes of problems with this issue and all we are asking, as the opposition, is that those findings be dealt with with integrity and accountability, the very things the Prime Minister and the Liberal government ran on, and to step up and pay taxpayers back for this illegal trip. I do not think that is an unreasonable request. That request is quite appropriate under these circumstances. We are asking the Prime Minister to step up, make amends for the findings of the Ethics Commissioner, the fact that he was found to have taken an illegal trip, have some integrity, and pay that money back.