John Manley

[Government Contracts, June 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is more of the same. This is what we are getting from this member all the time. There are allegations--

[Prime Minister, June 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, this has all been dealt with before. Perhaps if the hon. member got into second year law school, he would have learned a little about how these things work, how contracts are assigned, what constitutes a contractual agreement and how shares are transferred. He might have found that some of these things would have fallen into place for him.

[Prime Minister, June 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, it is rather sad. This has been hashed over repeatedly. The explanation for Akimbo is that it is a trade name. It is recognized as a trade name for Park Inns, which is an incorporated company owned by this Prince individual.

Today we announced $5.2 billion for agriculture. However on the first round of questions only the NDP was willing to ask a question on such an important issue for Canadian farming.

[Ethics Commissioner, June 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition knows perfectly well that the first ever ethics counsellor appointed by a Canadian government was appointed by this government.

Not only did we announce the toughest lobbyist legislation in the world but the Prime Minister has committed to an ethics counsellor, appointed by parliament, unable to be fired by anybody, for a term of five years who would report to parliament.

What we do not have is one bit of information about who paid for the leadership campaign of the Leader of the Opposition.

[Infrastructure, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in the House before, we do need to prepare all of the parameters of the programming. I do hope and expect to be able to announce how that program will work in the very near future. Only at that point, once cabinet has approved the programming parameters, would I be in a position to begin discussions with other levels of government concerning projects that they would consider to be strategic and which the strategic infrastructure fund could participate in.

I do hope that we can begin that process over the course of the summer months.

[Quebec Agricultural Co-operatives, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly find this interesting. I can tell the member that the burden is more or less equal across Canada. It is not the role of the Government of Canada to make decisions that would discriminate against any region in Canada.

[The Media, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I answered the very first question. The Prime Minister had nothing to do with decisions taken by CanWest Global with respect to its hirings, firings or anything else. Nor did he have anything to do with the firings that occurred when Conrad Black took over some of the same newspapers.

[The Media, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, that reminds me of a truism, that just because I am paranoid does not mean that people are not following me.

This is completely cooked up. It is extreme allegations based on fantasy, not reality.

[The Media, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to debate media concentration, let us hear his suggestions. Presumably he was content enough when Conrad Black owned Southam and the National Post . Apparently now he is less happy.

If he has some suggestions on media concentration, let us hear what they are or perhaps there is something we could debate.

[The Media, June 18th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, is there evidence that somehow or other the electronic media has been intimidated by the government? Does the Leader of the Opposition watch the news? If they are intimidated I would hate to see how they would behave if they were not.