—as the head of the Royal Canadian Mint. This is the grand doozy. The Hon. Alfonso Gagliano was the ambassador to Denmark and what did they do to him?
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 45% of the vote.
Government Appointments November 10th, 2006
—as the head of the Royal Canadian Mint. This is the grand doozy. The Hon. Alfonso Gagliano was the ambassador to Denmark and what did they do to him?
Government Appointments November 10th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the first action of the Conservative government, in bringing real change to Canada, was to introduce legislation to establish a public appointments commission to ensure that qualifications were there for people getting public appointments.
Let us look at the Liberal record: Andre Ouellet, who they had to fire as the head of Canada Post; David Dingwall, who they had to—
Federal Accountability Act November 10th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the member for Cambridge can bet his boots we are going to rebuild this act. He can bet his boots we are going to ensure that it is only $1,000 that people can donate to political parties and local candidates. He can bet his boots we are going to ensure that Liberal political staffers do not get a free pass into our neutral non-partisan public service and he can bet his boots that we are going to bring lightness where there is darkness at the Canadian Wheat Board.
Federal Accountability Act November 10th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party has said it wants a cap on political donations of $1,000. We agree. We wonder why those members are asking those questions. In the House of Commons committee they proposed to raise them to $3,000, and in the Liberal Senate they wanted to double them to $2,000.
We can solve this problem very easily by making our limits on donations retroactive to April 12, the day after the bill was introduced, so that we can have genuine accountability and less Liberal corruption.
Lobbying November 10th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the government and the Prime Minister brought forward to Parliament, in its very first piece of legislation, the most comprehensive lobbyist reform ever brought about not just in Canada but indeed the western world.
We want to impose a five year ban on those who work as ministerial assistants as well as senior public office holders. We want to require every single contact to be reported and made public on the Internet. These are real reforms. Canadians were tremendously disappointed at the corruption in the Liberal government.
Federal Accountability Act November 8th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Edmonton—St. Albert who has been a real leader, both in Canada and around the world, on fighting corruption.
The Liberal sponsorship scandal was a very dark day in Canadian politics and for the Canadian government. It is the Conservative government that has brought in the federal accountability act, the toughest piece of anti-corruption legislation in Canadian history.
If we want to make movement on this list of shame, if we want to clean up our act, we have to pass the federal accountability act and the Liberal Party should take responsibility. The member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore should stand in this place and encourage the federal Liberal senators to drop their objection to this important piece of legislation.
Federal Accountability Act November 8th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, the member for Ajax—Pickering says that we have choices.
I say that he has a choice. He can put up or he can shut up. He can announce that he will support our plan to make this bill retroactive. He can support our plan to make campaign finance reform retroactive.
Let us make the changes in the federal accountability act retroactive to April 12 and let us see the Liberal Party give back the 139 $5,000 donations, even from 12-year-olds, which should make the member for Eglinton—Lawrence happy.
Federal Accountability Act November 8th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, after a lot of thought and reflection, I want to thank the member for Ajax—Pickering for the idea. I do share his view that we need to get tougher. We need to make the federal accountability act and its campaign finance reforms retroactive to April 12.
Canadian Heritage November 7th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, this Parliament has an amazing opportunity to change the way this city operates, to change politics and to eliminate the influence and the role of big money in politics, which is why the very first piece of legislation that the Prime Minister brought forward was to ban corporations and unions from making donations to any political party and to reduce from $5,400 to $1,000 the contributions to political parties.
The NDP has been a great ally in reform. If we could only have the support of the unelected Liberal Senate we could make this law today.
Government Accountability November 7th, 2006
Mr. Speaker, I will one-up my friend from Montreal. Let us stop the voluntary rules. Let us make this bill law today. Let us put these proposals on the statute books here in Canada. However, it requires one thing. It requires the Liberal members of Parliament to tell the Liberals in the Senate to stop dithering and to make this bill law so we can deliver real accountability that Canadians have demanded for far too long.