Charlie Angus

[Government Polling, June 15th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, they really need help with their answers. No wonder so many Conservatives are jumping ship. This used to be the government that railed against the Senate; now it is a party that defends Duffy and Wallin. It has become a mirror image of the corrupt old Liberal government. Remember how the Prime Minister, when he was in opposition, used to rail against Paul Martin for spending millions on partisan polling and advertising? Now, in the dying days of the current corrupt government, they turn the taps on to try and kick-start their electioneering machine.

I have a simple question: take your hands out of taxpayers' pockets and spend your own money on—

[The Senate, June 15th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, last week Conservatives and Liberals rubber-stamped another $57 million for the Senate. Now we learn that senators are going to ding taxpayers for $24 million because they just do not want to have to walk an extra block to go to work.

The government is a party that has lost its way. Conservatives have become the defenders of entitlement, while New Democrats will defend the taxpayer. I have a simple question: will they work with New Democrats to end this rip-off of the taxpayer by rich insiders who are too lazy to walk a block to work?

[Ethics, June 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, that was certainly pitiful: a once-proud government that will say anything and do anything in its dying days as it is tied to the corruption in the Senate. No wonder the Prime Minister has gone to ground.

Let us get back to reality. Let us talk about the former president of the Liberal Party, Senator Poulin, who refused to even co-operate with the Auditor General. Her case has been referred to the RCMP.

Canadians are sick of this sense of entitlement. Why does the Prime Minister refuse to show any leadership, and let that member defend the indefensible? Why are the Conservatives defending corruption in the Senate rather than standing up for the Canadian taxpayer?

[Ethics, June 10th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used to say that senators do not represent anybody but the prime minister who appointed them, and the current Prime Minister has been found doing damage control for the Senate scandal every step of the way.

How does he feel now that we have found out that his hand-picked Senate speaker was billing taxpayers for a St. Valentine's ball in Montreal and that his previous Senate leader flew to Vancouver for a wedding anniversary on the taxpayers' dime?

These senators are refusing to show any contrition, and the government is refusing to show any responsibility. When will it stop defending its friends in the Senate and start defending the Canadian taxpayer?

[Ethics, June 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I think that rant explains the story of the demise of the Conservative-Reform agenda. Remember a Prime Minister who came to Ottawa riding a white horse? Instead he will be leaving flogging a dead horse, taking Duffy and Wallin and the member for Oak Ridges—Markham with him. What changed?

Remember that Reform agenda? It was the member for Nepean—Carleton who said they would maximize accountability and minimize the cost. Instead they have maximized partisan abuse by their crony insider friends, and they have no willingness to stand up to the disgrace that is the Senate, because the Prime Minister appointed them.

Why will they not be accountable to the Canadian public?

[Ethics, June 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives really have lost their way. They hide behind that poisonous sideshow, which is really just to run cover for their insider friends.

What happened to the Conservative Party? It is the Prime Minister's appointed senators who are defying hard-working Canadians who pay their way and play by the rules.

The senators are saying that they are not going to listen to the audit, that they will look at the findings. I am sorry, but the Auditor General's report is not an opinion. This is a forensic audit.

Why is the government standing in solidarity with the corruption in the Senate, rather than standing with the Canadian taxpayers?

[Ethics, June 9th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we go from fiction to fact. The Auditor General of Canada has shown a damning exposé of the Senate.

We are learning that they were flying first class to do corporate business and personal pet projects. The Auditor General has once again flagged that we have to end this issue of self-policing.

This report belongs at the feet of the Prime Minister. He promised Canadians reform, and instead his staff delivered cover-ups, whitewash, and a bribe.

Why has the Prime Minister gone to ground when Canadians are looking to him to show some leadership in dealing with this corrupt institution?

[Main Estimates 2015-16, June 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like to thank you for doing yeoman's duty tonight in trying to keep both sides on a very reasonable course and focused.

I agree with the Speaker that it would be very unfair for me to talk about individual senators at this point, in deference to my colleague for Nickel Belt, because we do not know the charges or what the issues are.

As a generality, my colleague comes from Nickel Belt and I come from Timmins—James Bay, and our people are hard working. People who are 68 years old have told me at Tim Hortons that they are going back to work. I am sorry, I am not to mention Tim Hortons. I know the Conservatives are deeply opposed to Tim Hortons.

They have told me that they are going back to work underground in the mines, because they do not have pensions. I hear people tell me that they cannot afford to heat their houses in the winter because they cannot pay their hydro. These are people who built our country. When I go home on the weekends, they are deeply offended by this abuse of trust in the Senate, because they see that these are people who should know better. These are people who are set for life and should do the decent thing, because these people do the right thing.

Therefore, I would say to my hon. colleague, whether it is the people of Nickel Belt in Sudbury or anywhere in this country, in western Canada, or in Quebec, we expect the upper chamber, just like we expect the House of Commons, to do the right thing. When senators show such egregious abuse and such disregard, people have a right to be angry, and they have a right to ask their members of Parliament to stand up. They have a right to expect that their members of Parliament are going to hold that group to some level of accountability, which is why we are debating this issue tonight.

[Main Estimates 2015-16, June 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague and his defence of an old tired party, and the fact that poor James Cowan still calls himself the leader of the Liberal Senate.

The Liberals have not been very effective in getting the message that they are throwing the bums out. If they are serious about this, they would take steps to have them removed. If we want to find non-partisan people, we would move to ensure that people like Rod Zimmer and Marie Charette-Poulin, a former Liberal Party leader who is under investigation, Rose-Marie Losier-Cool, Colin Kenny, Pana Merchant, a whole list of them, would not be appointed. They are Liberal operatives. Suddenly, when they become damaging to the present Liberal leader, he says that they are Liberal operatives, but they are actually independent Liberal operatives, so they have actually seen the light. What a crazy deathbed conversion.

If the Liberal leader were serious, he would work with us and say that he wanted the whole lot of them thrown out, that we should bring in a constituent assembly and replace them with truly non-partisan people, but that is not the case. We are looking at a long tired list of Liberal operatives, bagmen, party leaders, and suddenly they are all independents. Why? Because the scandal goes right to the Liberal leader as much as it does to the Conservative leader.

[Main Estimates 2015-16, June 8th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, what is really sad is the idea that my Conservative colleagues would hide behind defending the integrity of a disgraced institution.

That is not the party of Preston Manning or Monte Solberg. I remember the days when they spoke for the taxpayers and they claimed to speak for the ordinary Canadian people. Instead they are telling us we have to show deference in the face of issues of breach of trust, fraud and bribery.

I want to thank the Speaker. There is no need to get into side issues with the upper chamber because we are dealing with such serious issues.

For my hon. colleague from Oak Ridges—Markham, it is amazing that the Prime Minister, who came to Ottawa promising to show leadership, has just left the country. I think he has been in the House about five days out of the last session because he cannot answer his involvement in the corruption scandal.

The Conservatives are throwing up roadblock after roadblock saying that it cannot be done, or it is impossible, or they go through all the constitutional things. They are starting to sound like the tired old Liberal Party.

The vote tonight is really a simple question as to whether my colleague in the Conservative party will give $57 million to that institution, and they are obviously more than set to give that money.