Mr. Speaker, I am struggling with trying to reconcile the behaviour, and I am grateful he raised the question of how a non-partisan Clerk of Privy Council is supposed to conduct him or herself.
Many years ago, from 1986-88, I worked in the office of the federal minister of environment in a majority Progressive Conservative government under Brian Mulroney. The behaviour of federal senior civil servants in those days bears no relationship whatsoever to the kind of thuggery that was reported yesterday. However, it is not that new to see this kind of contamination of our federal civil servants. It has been coming on for some time.
I wonder if the hon. member for Perth—Wellington would agree with me that we have a deeper cultural problem to restore a truly independent, expert, non-partisan civil service.