Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to try to explain, as best as I can, why we are having this debate this afternoon. It is quite unfortunate, but the Conservatives have been focused on character assassination, even back 10 years ago when the leader of the Liberal Party was first elected as leader. Absolutely nothing has changed over the last 10-plus years. They identify an individual and then attack the very character of that person.
In the many years that I have known the member from Edmonton Centre, I never had him come up to me in any fashion whatsoever to try to give any sort of an impression that he was indigenous himself. I really look at a lot of the things the Conservatives do as ways to try to discredit individuals inside the chamber. Quite frankly, it is at a very great cost. I often say, which Hansard will clearly demonstrate, that over the years, the Conservative Party has focused on destroying the characters of elected officials in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, we have a Prime Minister and a government that continue to be focused on Canadians.
While Conservatives try to sidestep important issues and bring in character assassinations, as a government, we have been focused on Canadians to ensure they are a part of the solution in building a stronger, healthier economy. We are focusing in on Canada's middle class, and those aspiring to be a part of it, while focusing on ensuring that we have an economy that works for all Canadians. That has been the government's focus for years.
The type of response we get from members of the Conservative Party is for them to consistently attack individuals. There might be the odd one that steps up to the plate to say something that is a little bit more constructive, but that is discouraged in the Conservative caucus. There are Conservative MPs on the other side who have made it very clear that they do not have a choice.
There are people in the Conservative leader's office who actually follow members, who stalk them to see what they are saying. That made national news last week with a story about the degree to which Conservative MPs are being stalked within their own caucus. They get stars if they do something right, and they get some of those stars taken away if they do something wrong. For example, if they talk to Liberal members of Parliament, that is a bad thing, according to the Conservative caucus and their new rules.
If Conservative members want to get a star, well, they can maybe attack the character of someone, just like what we are witnessing today. By far, the best way to get those simple stars is to repeat the slogans. Today, we can see how many times members stood up to say their slogans. That is because it is encouraged. They are told that they will get stars if they do that. There are Conservative members who are talking about how freedom within the caucus has become scarcer as a direct result of their leader. If they want to talk about character assassination, I would like to share some thoughts about that with regarding the leader of the Conservative Party that Canadians should be aware of.
This multi-million dollar, self-serving game the Conservatives are playing today, and have been playing for the last six weeks on the floor of the House of Commons, has not only a substantive financial cost, but also a very negative impact on the legislative agenda. We would have seen legislation to protect children from online predators, legislation to protect sexually abused women and others within the Canadian forces by taking their cases out of military court and putting them into civilian courts and legislation to deal with Canada's supply lines. We could have talked about the fall economic statement, not to mention private members' bills, opposition day motions and all forms of legislation that could have been debated, but we are not. Why is that? It is because the Conservative leadership has made the decision to filibuster on the floor of the House of Commons.
We talk about character assassination, and we are witnessing the attack by the Conservatives toward the former minister, the member for Edmonton Centre. I would suggest that the one orchestrating it is the leader of the Conservative Party, who needs to look in the mirror. After all, he is the one in borderline contempt of Parliament with the multi-million dollar game he is orchestrating on the floor of the House of Commons. That is what is happening today. We are seeing a political game because the Conservative Party believes that they know better. They know better that unredacted documents should be given to the RCMP without any hesitation. That is what the leader of the Conservative Party believes, even though the RCMP and the Auditor General of Canada both say no.
The Conservatives are going to take into consideration, as a part of their filibuster, a serious issue of indigenous businesses and opportunities and use it to attack the character of a member of Parliament. However, I would suggest that we need to start reflecting more on the attitudes and the types of things the leader of the Conservative Party is doing because it is purely self-serving and not in Canada's best interest. Here is a leader who is solely focused on preventing healthy debate in the chamber.
My colleague posed a question earlier about the foreign interference issue. Again, it is rooted right back with the leader of the Conservative Party. When the Conservatives criticize the member for Edmonton Centre, members can listen to the complaints and the issues regarding the leader of the Conservative Party.