For the hecklers from the New Democrats, when the NDP was the official opposition, it resisted openness and accountability when it came to members of Parliament and what they should report to Canadians.
When the Prime Minister first became leader of the Liberal Party, one of the first initiatives he took, outside of dealing with the importance of Canada's middle class, was to ensure there would be more accountability and transparency in the chamber. I will remind my friends across the way how they responded to that. It was not very positive. It was not what Canadians wanted to hear. If they want to talk about saying one thing while in government and saying another thing while in opposition, or saying one thing when in official opposition, and how quickly things turn around, at least there is consistency with the Prime Minister and the Liberal caucus.
The example I am referring to is the issue of proactive disclosure. What did the New Democrats have to say about proactive disclosure? What did the Conservative Party have to say? When the Prime Minister was elected the leader of the third party, he stood in the House, not once or twice but on several occasions, to try to get the chamber to recognize that a higher bar needed to be met, and I remember because I sat right behind him. He said that one of the ways we could do that was through proactive disclosure. What was the response? Of course, as the third party it went well for us. When the then leader of the Liberal Party, now Prime Minister, asked for unanimous consent to raise that bar, the response was no from both the government of the day, the Harper bubble closed-door government, and the official opposition, the NDP party. We were saying that Canadians had a right to know some of the very basics with respect to how members of Parliament spent their taxpayer money. We were arguing for it be posted on the Internet.