Dean Del Mastro

[41st General Election, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, now members opposite are misquoting the Chief Electoral Officer.

We need to be clear about the NDP's record on this. It has gone about a pattern of baseless allegations and has had to apologize time and time again. It is almost as though the member from Winnipeg needs a professional apology writer with the number of times NDP members have to apologize for the things they say outside this place.

What the Chief Electoral Officer did say was that he finds all of the sweeping allegations of wrongdoing with no facts to support them troubling. I would ask the member to provide her facts.

[41st General Election, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times in this House, and it is surprising that the member is unaware of this, the NDP is actually under investigation for not just its 2011 annual general meeting, but also its 2009 annual general meeting, where it took tens of thousands of illegal donations, contrary to the Accountability Act, from large unions in this country. That was made very clear by the Chief Electoral Officer. The only thing holding up the investigation is the fact that the NDP is withholding the information that the Chief Electoral Officer would like to see.

With respect to the specific allegations made by the member, once again I will quote the Chief Electoral Officer. He finds it troubling--

[41st General Election, April 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the polling firm mentioned by the member has a startling record in the last number of months. We do not comment on polls, but I think its research speaks for itself. Specifically, one need look no further than the election.

However, I would point to the comments of the Chief Electoral Officer who said, “I find it troubling, all of the sweeping allegations of wrongdoing without evidence to support it”. We know the Liberals did make some illegal robocalls in the last election. They were caught doing that: illegal calls, phony numbers, phony messages. That is what the Liberals did.

We also know they have made these phony allegations, sweeping allegations with no evidence to support it. That is what the member has done. She is troubling the Chief Electoral Officer by doing it.

[Elections Canada, April 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, when the Chief Electoral Officer appeared before committee, he stated that he finds it troubling to hear all of the sweeping allegations of wrongdoing with no facts to support them. I guess what the Chief Electoral Officer is saying is that he is troubled every time this member stands to speak because all of his sweeping allegations have no facts to support them.

[Elections Canada, April 23rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure that Canadians would always entertain receiving a cheque from the Liberal Party for the missing $43 million from the sponsorship scandal that the member forgot to mention.

However, as we have indicated from the get-go, unlike the Liberal member for Guelph who had to get caught for a phony call, using a phony number and a phony name, we have actually been participating with Elections Canada, assisting it as we could in this matter.

As we said earlier, we have nothing to hide in this. The Conservative Party played absolutely no role in any of the allegations that the member has just indicated. However, what I can say is that we will continue to assist Elections Canada. Will the Liberal Party?

[Elections Canada, April 23rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, once again we see the member opposite doing exactly what the Chief Electoral Officer told him not to do, which is jump to crazy conclusions.

Let us be clear. We have indicated from the get-go and from the outset that we were fully participating in supporting Elections Canada in its work and its research in this regard. We regard any effort to suppress a vote as being completely unacceptable.

What we do know in addition to that is that the NDP does not co-operate with Elections Canada. It has not co-operated in the investigations into the NDP with respect to its own conventions, where it took illegal donations from unions. Why will it not co-operate?

[The Budget, April 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I will begin by saying how deplorable a number of the comments the member just made were. The comments she made about the Minister of National Defence are beneath the House and she should have withdrawn them when she was given the opportunity to do so. However, she decided not to. which speaks to character.

However, I want to correct the record on a number of things the member just said. For instance, she indicated that spending in the PMO was up and that spending in ministers' offices was up. I would like to give her the opportunity to respond, especially where numbers are concerned. The NDP often gets very lost in numbers because it does not understand numbers, but Canadians feel it is important that we do.

The budget in the PMO was down 13.7% over 2010. That is more than the overall spending decreases that we are asking from the rest of government. The budget for ministers' offices is down 16% compared to the last year the Liberals were in office. That is seven years ago and we are 16% beneath that. We are running an efficient, effective government. We make no apologies for seeking to run the government as efficiently and effectively as possible. She would drive taxes up and investment would fall in this country. She should withdraw the inaccuracies and the deplorable things that she said about the Minister of National Defence because they were beneath the House.

[41st General Election, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the opposition needs to clearly determine whether it has confidence in Elections Canada or not.

Today the Chief Electoral Officer presented to committee. He in fact said that he had the capacity and resources to undertake this. He said several things that the member has either deliberately ignored or is deliberately manipulating. He said there were 250 files, not investigations. He said it could all be a single investigation. He also said he would report back to Parliament. What he said very clearly is the unsubstantiated smear campaign that has been undertaken by parties opposite is entirely inappropriate.

[41st General Election, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Chief Electoral Officer encouraged the member opposite not to jump to any conclusions and to allow him to undertake the process. He indicated that he had all the resources and abilities necessary to conduct this investigation, but he told the member not to jump to conclusions.

The member is demonstrating exactly what one of my colleagues indicated was a circus: a baseless smear campaign that has been undertaken by the opposition parties in the House of Commons, with no evidence to support what they are suggesting whatsoever.

We will fully assist Elections Canada in this matter and we encourage it to report back to Parliament in due course.

[41st General Election, March 29th, 2012]

—Elections Canada to get to the bottom of that.

We encourage Air Canada to keep flying.

The Chief Electoral Officer has indicated that he absolutely stands behind the results of all 308 ridings. He also encouraged the opposition members to stop their baseless smear campaign.