Howard Hilstrom

[Supply, February 24th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am also against people being killed in wars and disputes. I am against crime on the streets where people get killed. Landmines of course are meant to kill people, so I am against them too.

However, let us take the case of Afghanistan. There was a regime in Afghanistan which was killing people and putting women and female children in the position of being unable to get an education. Firms built the necessary weaponry to liberate the women and children of Afghanistan. Those weapons, not landmines, had to be used. Right now the Canadian armed forces are over in Afghanistan carrying on with the effort made there through the use of these weapons.

I ask the member if in fact there is not a place in the world, seeing as how mankind has not risen to the ideal heights of not hurting each other, where it is necessary to use weaponry for the ultimate good of the people of that country.

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, I would like to speak for a minute to this corruption and the granting of moneys by the Liberal government.

Speaking of the gun registry, which we know is a big waste of money, we are like everyone else. We are for one gun control. Even the Americans are for gun control. However none of us are for the excessive waste of time of registering rifles and shotguns.

The Liberals often mention that the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is supportive of their legislation. I would like to point out to the Canadian public and to members that the Association of Chiefs of Police receives money from the Liberal government for its association.

I know that one year $100,000 went to a program that the chiefs of police used. That is very clear. This kind of thing shows that the Liberal government has sympathizers in many organizations throughout the country and it buys that support.

The president of the Canada Beef Export Federation, Ted Haney, is now running for the Liberals.

I would also point out that Bob Friesen, who is the head of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, just lost the riding of Brandon--Souris to Murray Downing who will be running for the Liberals.

It is amazing how all these organizations have Liberal sympathizers which is also part of this overall level of the insidious nature that Liberals get into with Canadians to buy the next election.

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Madam Speaker, this is the first time I have had an opportunity to speak while you were in the chair. I congratulate the member from Kamloops on sitting in the chair. You are doing a very good job.

The member from British Columbia is talking about how the Prime Minister is going to take charge and is going to fix this whole thing up. I would like to ask the member, what has he done to take charge of the issue out in British Columbia? The RCMP search warrants were sealed up during an organized crime investigation of the very Liberal Party members who put the Prime Minister into the Prime Minister's chair through their activities of buying memberships and getting him elected. There is a scandal that involves crime and corruption. What is the Prime Minister doing about that?

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, we in the opposition party, the media and Canadians generally are not using the words “culture of corruption” lightly. Those are very serious words.

We look back at the history of the Liberal Party and we see the influence peddling that came out of the previous elections. There is the Corbeil case. We see the current investigation with Mr. Basi, one of the main organizers of the Prime Minister's campaign for leadership of the Liberal Party. We see the Virginia Fontaine centre with strong Liberal connections in Provencher, Manitoba. We add these up and sadly that is not all of them. There are many more examples. When we get more than a handful of examples of corruption, what are we to call it but a culture of corruption?

That is what is so sad about the situation today. I would like the member to comment on whether the words “culture of corruption” as they are being applied to the Liberal Party are being misused or whether it is correct.

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a general comment and observation. I spent 30 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Sixteen of those years were spent on organized crime, white collar crime and organized crime involving narcotics. I looked at the organizations that were set up, where the top guys had layer after layer underneath them and were never touched or where it was very difficult to touch them. The beneficiaries of that were the top guys.

I see this same layering with the sponsorship program, which was not about saving Canada. It was about the Liberal Party being elected in the next election, buying votes and enhancing its own funding.

What I see from the Auditor General's report is that in fact these sponsorship advertising agencies were very Liberal friendly. With the experience I have had in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I see the same organized effort by the Liberal Party of Canada to bilk the taxpayers.

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member from the Bloc was on the agriculture committee with me. I would like to talk for a few seconds about the dollars and cents being thrown around about this business.

The Treasury Board minister was talking about a 1/2000th spending of the total federal government involving this corruption, even though that adds up to $100 million which I believe is what the Auditor General said. Right now there are potato farmers in P.E.I. and farmers and ranchers out west particularly in the cattle business who are suffering to the point of having to use the food banks to feed their families. That is the gospel truth. The average Canadian is sitting out there listening to us discuss hundreds of millions of dollars, especially the Treasury Board minister, as if it was just a mere pittance of no concern. These people are starving to death and financially are going to ruin.

I would ask the member to relate the dollars and cents that are being thrown around here, or perhaps it should be the lack of sense. How do they relate to the average person, in particular the beef farmers who are suffering so badly today?

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, last night on the national news the Prime Minister said, “the Liberal Party is not corrupt”. That is the exact statement he made. It reminded me of that famous United States president who said, “I am not a crook”.

I think that the public service, as mentioned by the President of the Treasury Board, is not corrupt. We know that. The public servants of this country are great. But someplace there is corruption in this whole mess of the sponsorship program. If it is not the public servants, which the President of the Treasury Board has assured me it is not, and I know that myself as I was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 30 years, then where is the corruption?

The corruption then can only rise up to the political level. At the political level there is very little difference between me and the Conservative Party and little difference between the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party.

Seeing that this type of contract shenanigans is happening in all provinces across the country, including Quebec, who does the member think is actually responsible in the end for this mess?

[Petitions, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, my petition is one more of millions that have come in from across Canada in regard to marriage.

The petitioners from Manitoba, including Winnipeg and my own riding, point out that marriage is the jurisdiction of Parliament. They ask that Parliament pass legislation recognizing marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

[Address in Reply, February 2nd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, that member has referred to the BSE crisis as a problem. The farming and ranch community that I know that raise livestock consider this to be a crisis.

Why has the government not mentioned in the throne speech that it is making a more concerted effort to liaise with the United States, and in particular President Bush, to resolve the issue of cross-border trade?

[Agriculture, November 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the provinces have not even signed on to the program yet, so there is still time to change it.

This minister should understand that farmers, like any other business people, have to build or manage their cash in a manner that reduces their yearly expenses. By having to deposit large sums of cash just to access the APF safety net program, the minister is ensuring that any losses on the farm will be even larger.

Why will the minister not remove the requirement for a cash deposit that is nothing but a hardship for Canadian farmers?