Brian Tobin

[Prime Minister, March 29th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, all those questions have been dealt with by the ethics counsellor who, on behalf of members of cabinet and 1,400 public officials, manages all confidential information on behalf of all those who are required to file with the ethics counsellor.

We are not going to get up in the House and start going through every file of every official, including the Prime Minister, simply because questions are being asked.

I am surprised that we have not been asked yet today whether the Prime Minister puts his pants on one leg at a time.

[Prime Minister, March 29th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has had no interest in and no ownership of the golf course since November 1993. What he did have was an interest in being paid for the shares that he sold in November 1993. What his agent achieved in 1999 was payment for those shares.

[Prime Minister, March 29th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, about 1 o'clock today fire trucks pulled up to the building and we all left the building. As it turned out the incident was like question period. There was neither smoke nor fire.

[Prime Minister, March 29th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, whether the Leader of the Opposition is aware of it or not, the fact of the matter is that the people of Canada quite frankly are fed up with this line of questioning.

They have come to the conclusion that the Prime Minister of Canada has acted in an honourable fashion. They are quite frankly wondering why the Leader of the Opposition has nothing else he can talk about as he desperately tries to save his leadership.

[Ethics Counsellor, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the ethics counsellor has the advice of lawyers at his disposal and he acts upon that advice, which is more than is obviously the case on the opposite side of the House.

Members can ask these questions if they like. Let us serve notice that every day for the next four years we will be here. We will be doing our jobs. We will do our best to answer.

This Prime Minister and this government are not going away. We will stay on the job and stay on the real files important to the people of Canada.

[Ethics Counsellor, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, earlier in question period a member opposite asked whether or not we in this party had discussed this matter today in caucus. I should not talk about caucus but I will tell the member that we did.

I will sat what members told the Prime Minister. They said to the Prime Minister “You have gone above and beyond the call of duty. You have answered all the questions. We on this side think you should now tell them enough is enough”.

I say to the Prime Minister that we on this side have it. We will stand with you right to the wall on this issue.

[Prime Minister, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote the member who just asked the question. Two days ago he said:

—the Prime Minister could have put this matter to rest a long time ago by providing definitively that he did not stand to gain himself by his actions by tabling a document that would lay out the details of a sales agreement he had with an individual named Jonas Prince.

That is exactly what the Prime Minister did yesterday.

[Employment, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, members opposite may not be interested in the fact that Canadians, those who work in the IT sector, may be affected by the layoffs announced by Nortel, but members on this side of the House are concerned about Canadians, their jobs and the Canadian economy.

I want to say to the member who asked the question that we do not know yet the impact of those job layoffs on workers here, in particular in the Ottawa area. We are monitoring the story closely. We are talking with Nortel and we are concerned that Rand D jobs be maintained in this country even as downsizing occurs.

[Employment, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker—

[Ethics Counsellor, March 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, first, I would have to go back because I know it would be prudent to find out exactly what it was the ethics counsellor said rather than take the assertion here in the House.

Second, the fact of the matter is that we know the Prime Minister actually lost money on the sale as it was disposed by his trustee. I think most Canadians know that if we had an unethical prime minister who did not care about the rule of law, he could have picked up the telephone, called a friend and said “Buy these shares; make sure I do not lose any money”.

The Prime Minister did not do that. He stayed out of it. He let his trustee handle it and, yes, he lost money. That shows how honest he is.