Mr. Speaker, before I address my friend's question, I want to express my condolences over the closure of the Bangor Sawmill Museum in his riding. I know there is a great deal of concern about that. People at the museum have spoken out about how the Canada summer jobs program, the fact that they were being forced to sign an attestation, played a key role in the closure of that museum. I want to express my own concern about that and my hope that the member will be able to work toward getting that museum back open. We said all along that there would be impacts on the program because of the attestation requirement, and I think the member is seeing those impacts, unfortunately, in his own constituency.
To the issue of appointments, the member says it is a work in progress. The government has been in power for two and a half years, yet it took six months to appoint the first judge. I accept the fact, absolutely, that it is desirable to appoint judges from across a full range of backgrounds, experience, and demographic groups. The bottom line is that it has to get done. The necessary number of judges have to be appointed, and I do not think it is fair to anyone to use the pursuit of diversity in appointments as an excuse for being behind on appointments. Frankly, qualified people from a diverse range of backgrounds can be found quickly. It could have been done more quickly than the government did. Unfortunately, it did not do that, and that was a source of delay.
In terms of issues I raised previously with respect to the situation before, the previous Conservative government had a very strong record on judicial appointments. The member is right that I never spoke about the issue in the House before 2015. I wish I had had the opportunity. I was elected for the first time in 2015, so I did not have the chance to do that then, but after 2019, I look forward to engaging another Conservative government on the issue of judicial appointments.