Rob Anders

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

I accused them generally, Mr. Speaker.

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I accuse a number of them, not just the Prime Minister. Does that satisfy it?

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, my reply to the point of order is that I do believe that this government is complicit in scandal and corruption and the Prime Minister is the head of it. I stand by that. I do not apologize for that. The Gomery inquiry is elucidating that daily in the press.

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, if he would like me to explain my words I will go on and do so. Putting aside some of these other comments for a second, I will address his concerns specifically. I remember when I was a rookie member of Parliament in my first term from 1997 to 2000 and I was in the human resources development committee--

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

I am glad to hear the Liberals across the way are perking up their ears.

I have been reading a lot about ancient history recently. History does not really care about whether one is right or left. It does not really care about whether one is capitalist or Marxist. It really only cares about whether or not there is success or productivity and whether or not something has survived and thrived. That is all it really cares about.

I have been reading Edward Gibbon's The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire . I have been reading Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History and Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization . I would like to tell a story about Rome.

Edward Gibbon talks about the time before Augustus and Octavius. In that capacity one of the things that afflicted Rome was excessive spending. It did not have sound finances. The society was no longer frugal. It also suffered from its young men being unwilling to bear arms to be trained in the art of war and to defend the Roman empire. It also suffered from a large degree of extortion, moral decay, corruption and a general disregard for religion. Therefore, it also had a low birth rate.

Augustus came along and he said that he was going to change some of those things. One of the things he did was he cut taxes. For every single child that a person had, the person's taxes would be reduced by 20%. Someone who had five children would pay no tax at all. He also made sure the Romans had sound financing and frugality. He made sure they had a strong military.

Another thing he did is very important, and it touches not only on this bill but also many others that we will be dealing with in the next little while and some we have been dealing with over the past while. He governed with moral authority. He sought a society with strong faith. He removed those people who were unworthy administrators.

This is what I want to focus on in light of Bill C-48 and some of the other bills we are going to be dealing with. If we do not have a society that largely believes in a very concrete set of right and wrong, most often provided by religion, then the only thing that actually rules is the covenant of the sword. The only people who police the difference between right and wrong in that capacity are either the military or whatever police function there is in that state.

The great problem that arises with that is that the police and the military are largely a reflection of the society they serve. If we get to a circumstance where the society is becoming more and more accepting of moral decay, extortion, corruption and various things, then we cannot be surprised if the military, the police and the people who are there to administer the law themselves become corrupt and caught up in it. Then it is merely as Hobbes would have said that life is nasty, brutish and short because one is ruled by those people who have the right of might and the sword. It is the survival of the fittest in the most base way.

De Tocqueville also talks about this in his writings on early America. Sadly, one of the things that pains me across the way, one of the things that Augustus would have never stood for as a Roman emperor, is if there had been corruption on the level and scale that we have had brought forth by the Gomery inquiry, he would have done his utmost to rout it out. Because of the moral authority that he brought to that position, his rule of 50 years was extended by another 300 because people tried to largely leave unchanged many of the things he put in place. Had he not been around, the Roman empire would have been a blip of only 150 years rather than the pax Romana of 800.

One of my great frustrations when I look across the way is that I see a Prime Minister and to a large part a party that is complicit with regard to this form of extortion and corruption, this scandal, whether it is involving the sponsorship money or if it is the unity fund or various things, and it portends very badly for the future of this country and where we are all going.

Let us talk about some of the solutions then--

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, June 20th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell a little story which might make it interesting for the people back home.

[Canada Elections Act, June 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I must admit I am pleasantly surprised that the government is now in favour of this legislation. The Liberals spoke very vociferously against it in the past, but I am glad to see that they have read the writing on the wall and know that it will pass because all three other parties in the House are of that mindset. I am glad to see that they are smelling the coffee and coming to.

Nonetheless, I will put on the record what I think are the important aspects of this bill.

First, the returning officer for each electoral district would no longer be appointed by the governor in council. Why do I support this? Because the “governor in council” really means the Prime Minister's Office and what that really means is that these electoral positions are merely positions of patronage. We would like to see that changed.

One of the great problems with the previous incarnation, those people being appointed by the Prime Minister's Office, was that there was no right to fire those election officers for abuse of their positions. That was a great problem. Many examples have been cited in the House by the different parties on that matter. I will go into a few of them.

My party and I certainly support the decentralization of power from the Prime Minister's Office. I think that is a move in the right direction. I think it also helps to clean up our political practices. It is interesting to note that both in the past and currently a great number of the people who have had these patronage positions have been involved with the Liberal Party of Canada. They have been friends of the government, former organizers for the governing Liberal Party or former Liberal Party candidates. That is important to note.

I have read the previous debates on this issue. It was interesting to note that this change to the law has been in effect in the province of Quebec since 1980. I am sure that my Bloc colleague will touch on some of this. It was through his speech that I was actually informed of this.

This change on the returning officers is a general move to make the process more open and transparent . It would involve using newspaper advertisements to advertise these positions and then accept the applications and judge them on their merits, competence and qualifications.

I would like to point out that when it comes to questions about those of us in the House in regard to our own nominations, my constituency association is obligated to put a notice in a local newspaper at least two weeks in advance of the nomination deadlines so that everybody has the ability to run. I have been through four of these processes, so I know well of what I speak. It certainly makes for an open and accountable process.

The irony of the current situation is that it gives only the person who hires these people the right to fire them. If someone is hired by the Prime Minister's Office, with the Chief Electoral Officer having no ability to do anything, and we get a dud, we are all stuck with it. There have been cases of that in the past.

One of my colleagues is very involved in democratic reform. The member for Lanark--Frontenac--Lennox and Addington has talked about some additions he would like to make to this legislation or some things to be considered as friendly amendments. One that I would like to touch on is an idea of training and testing.

The Bloc member, who has spoken on this before, talked about people being trained appropriately and about making sure they have full knowledge of the Canada Elections Act. I would add to his speech by saying that I hope these people are also tested on their thorough knowledge of the Canada Elections Act to prevent any of the previous problems.

In the member's last presentation, he spoke about how even current presidents of Liberal riding associations have actually been appointed to be the returning officers in their ridings. He listed specifically the riding of Ahuntsic, where the returning officer was the president of the Liberal riding association. If that is not a spurious and strange conflict of interest, I do not know what is.

He also put forward a story that I thought was fascinating. A returning officer hired a poll clerk who was unable to read or write. One would think that with the very idea or concept of the term “clerk” the person should be able to read or write, but that clearly was not a factor for the Prime Minister's Office when it selected that returning officer, who then chose the poll clerk.

I would say that this bill is an improvement to our electoral law. I was offered the opportunity of serving in the 1993 election in one of these capacities. I declined because I was hoping to help my party, and I did so, but I am somewhat envious of the experience of being involved in the nuts and bolts of the adjudication of the election process.

I was so enamoured of this idea that I actually wanted to go over to the Ukraine when the citizens had their parliamentary elections recently. I wanted to be involved in that, but unfortunately I was too sick to go at Christmas. I would have loved to participate the riding of Calgary--Nose Hill, or Calgary North as it was in 1993, but did not get the opportunity, and in every subsequent election I have been on the ballot as a candidate, so obviously I could not be involved in the process other than to serve as the candidate.

I also would like to put on the record that there are various other electoral reforms that I think are timely and needed. These go back to my early involvement with my party in 1993 and even to supporting it in the 1988 election. I still support the idea of recall. I still support the idea of binding referendums, be they national, provincial or otherwise. I still support the idea of citizens' initiatives, the idea that citizens can band together, sign up thousands of their fellow citizens, make changes to the law and take the power away from politicians and from this place. I support that.

I realize that this bill also attempts to professionalize these positions. I think that is a good thing. I have been reading a lot of history recently in light of the marriage debate in this House. I have realized that the British civil service was well respected because of its professionalism. It thoroughly trained and disciplined its civil service to make sure that those people did as close to their best as possible when they were administering things on behalf of the British empire, and it was well respected. I think that professionalization of these types of things is a smart move.

In reading the previous speeches, I was intrigued with the story my fellow Conservative colleague told of how there had been a returning officer put into his riding who did not have proper local knowledge. This person set up a polling location that could be accessed through what was called the California trail. As it turns out, the California trail was actually a snowmobile trail that could only be accessed by snowmobile in the winter and had no viability in the summer when the polling location was in operation. It points very clearly to the fact that if someone without local knowledge uses a snowmobile trail as a valid way of getting to the polls, it just does not count.

He also gave examples of how this person without local knowledge did not have enough forms at the particular polling location. As a result, they ran out of printed forms to allow people to enter their names onto the ballot. It was a nasty experience. There was a blockade of irate voters and the police had to be called in.

My Conservative colleague in a previous incarnation also spoke of a review mechanism. Many of my colleagues in the House, when we have our election campaigns, probably conduct some sort of post-mortem on our elections to determine what went right and what went wrong. I think a similar review mechanism is probably good idea with regard to these individuals as well.

As I wrap up my speech, I would like to state Conservative Party policy number six:

A Conservative government will ensure that senior officers such as the Auditor General, Chief Electoral Officer, Comptroller General, Ethics Commissioner, Information Commissioner, and Privacy Commissioner will be appointed by Parliament and report to it.

That is something that very much fits the spirit of this bill. I hope that sometime within the next year a Conservative government would be able to introduce and follow through on a version of this legislation.

[Petitions, June 1st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on behalf of 45 people in my riding. The petition concerns children who suffer from autism spectrum disorder. The petitioners talk about the unconscionable waiting lists for these individuals.

The petitioners ask us to amend the Canada Health Act and the corresponding regulations especially so that Canadian professionals would no longer be forced to leave Canada to receive academic training in this field.

[Sponsorship Program, May 6th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, talk about lacking credibility. The code of silence around dirty sponsorship moneys for Liberal candidates in Quebec is broken. With the slug's trail leading right to the PMO, how much does the Prime Minister know and how many members across the way have been told to shut up?

Yesterday the director of the party's Quebec wing testified he received $300,000 in brown envelopes from a former Liberal organizer. He himself bagged $100,000 in an envelope stuffed with hundreds and twenties at the party's Montreal headquarters.

When will the ridings, which ended up receiving that dirty money--

[Committees of the House, May 5th, 2005]

How come Broadbent is quitting?