Madam Speaker, the focus of the Conservative Party throughout this entire process is interesting. The Conservatives often like to talk about how they are trying to work collaboratively with the government on the coronavirus. I see this great reluctance on their part. I can see the sadness in their faces quite often. If we want to get a Conservative excited, just throw the name Liberal in anything to do with government and instantly the antennas go up and it becomes unethical or scandalous.
I genuinely do not believe we are trying to hide anything. I hope I will have a chance to go to the ethics committee to talk about the issue of scandals. I have seen scandals in the past.
When I hear the Conservatives talk about about scandals, I scratch my head. We are in the midst of a pandemic. I realize they get really excited about this stuff for political purposes, but at some point in time they must realize that the number one issue in our country is the pandemic. Being the official opposition, members have more of a responsibility to the collective Conservative Party than focusing on things that, from my perspective, are just not there.
I had asked a question about committee meetings and how many had been held. I understand that since March to August, there have been over 200 House committee meetings, over 50 meetings in July and August. It is unprecedented in recent decades. It is truly amazing.
When the Conservative Party, the Bloc and the NDP say it is a scandal, they call in the Ethics Commissioner. Often the Ethics Commissioner says no, but they still call in the RCMP. It does not matter what the issue is as long as they can try to get that headline. That is really why they scream from the mountain top about corruption. Just because the Conservative Party says it is corrupt does not make it corrupt.
If I get that opportunity to go to the ethics committee, I will share with the members there some of the things that happened under the Harper regime and the Mulroney regime which were corrupt. I remember the Airbus scandal. I can go back to the Harper regime and the in and out scandal. What about the Senate? I do not know how many people from the PMO were directly involved. Going right into the Conservative Senate, we can talk about fundraisers and the whole nine yards. We get a lot of discussion and debate about the issue of corruption.
Maybe what the ethics committee should be looking at is the importance of the Ethics Commissioner and the potential role the commissioner can play in informing Canadians. The worst thing a Canadian can do is listen to the Conservatives on the issue of corruption. If we look at what the Ethics Commissioner, an independent officer, has to say, we would get something closer to an element of truth.