Madam Speaker, I first want to congratulate the member opposite on the birth of his nephew, and congratulations to the happy parents, too.
The member is the ethics shadow minister for the Conservative Party. I must say, he has a creative imagination. If there is an opportunity to look under something, even if there is nothing there, he has a decent ability to give a perception of something. He is fairly good at pushing that perception. Ultimately, he believes that if it is pushed long enough and hard enough, he might convince some people there is a sense of reality to it.
Regarding election laws and financing, back in 2017 we introduced legislation and, about a year later, we had it passed. Today, compared with democracies around the world, we have some of the most stringent, transparent and accountable election laws. I would challenge the member to name a few places, particularly here in North America, that are more stringent and have a higher sense of accountability and transparency than our election laws.
I can remember giving speeches in the chamber. As an example, the very most a Canadian citizen can give me is $1,500 or $1,600. I can tell members there is no one who is going to give me $1,600 and feel I owe them something as a result of that.
At the end of the day, democracy requires that there has to be money to finance political parties. I am sure the member is aware that the Conservative Party raises a lot of money too. I suspect a lot of that money comes in the form of $1,600 donations.
Upon reflection, if we were to look at every member who contributed to the Conservative Party, we might find some questionable characters. I am not the parliamentary secretary responsible for ethics, so I am not going to go and search for it. I can appreciate the member opposite has the responsibility to look under those blankets and see where there might be something we can tie to.
Do members really think that what is taking place in China has an impact on what we are thinking as a government, in terms of policies? I do not believe that for one moment. I really do not believe it for a moment. I do not think contributions coming to individual members of Parliament are influencing the direction our caucus wants to move in, especially during this crisis situation with the coronavirus.
We need to be realistic. We have very much gone beyond what the election laws require of us. We used to have these large fundraisers, before the coronavirus and physical distancing, and our Prime Minister would invite the media to attend. We are prepared to share lists. We challenged the Conservative Party to do likewise, but they will not do that.
I am a bit suspicious of the official opposition, generally speaking, when it comes to issues of ethics. I prefer to look at our Ethics Commissioner, who is an apolitical—