Ron Liepert

[Privilege, November 4th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I am wondering if you could check to see if we have quorum.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am not sure that there is much that I could add to that, but nothing that comes out of this particular government, or testimony at committees about dealing with this particular government, surprises any of us anymore. It is a corrupt government. It is a government on its last leg. It is time for an election. There are 58 days before Christmas.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I think that was the point I was trying to make. For the member for Waterloo to somehow intimate that I was saying the Speaker was biased is not correct.

I will answer the question the member raised that I think is important. I do not understand why we cannot do both of the things the member suggested: table the documents and go to committee. That is pretty simple, but it is only the Liberals who are standing in the way of moving it to committee right now.

My recommendation is for the member for Waterloo to go to caucus on Wednesday to say that the Liberals are losing this battle and to ask them to just cave and table the documents.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, if I gave the impression that somehow the Speaker was biased, that was not my intention. What I said was that the Speaker was elected as a Liberal MP. Yes, he was elected by the House as the Speaker, but he is a Liberal MP. The Liberals are not even supporting one of their own colleagues when he makes a ruling that is unbiased.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I have no faith in the Liberal-NDP government or anything going to committee. Neither one of those two parties want to go to an election right now, so whatever it takes to filibuster a committee, they are going to do it. I have no faith in the committee system in the House under the current Liberal-NDP government, and that is why we need the documents tabled, as ordered by the Speaker. There is an easy way out.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member is one hundred per cent correct. We have been saying that now for three and a half weeks. There are many options that can happen. Number one, obviously, is to table the documents and the House goes back to regular consideration of business, or, if the Liberals are that afraid to table the documentation, there is another option. Actually, there is enough time yet. There are 58 days between now and Christmas, when we could actually have an election. I would challenge the deputy House leader to make that recommendation to his leader at caucus on Wednesday.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the facts speak for themselves. How many committees have we had filibustered? Stuff gets swept under the rug because the NDP votes with the Liberals every time. Why would we send this to the committee?

The Speaker has made a ruling, and if we have any desire to uphold this institution, we should be doing what the Speaker says and they should provide the documents, unredacted, now.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the leader of our party has been travelling this country for the last two years and meeting with Canadians of all walks of life on their home turf. All we have seen, since that time, is that the popularity of our leader continues to increase because he is talking with Canadians about things that they care about.

This particular member, who says he goes to McDonald's in Winnipeg on Saturday mornings to check out what his constituents have to say, should maybe pick a few other McDonald's locations and check out what they have to say. Canadians are telling us that they are fed up with the government, they are sick and tired of the Prime Minister, and they want an election now.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, there will be other speakers, and there may even be amendments we can speak to again, so they may get their wish if they want more.

Let us get back to the scandal before us. If we did not have the NDP consistently supporting the Liberals at committee, we might have a little confidence that something would happen there. However, I am afraid that when this goes to committee, as the speaker before me said, it will be swept it under the rug and the Liberals will filibuster. It is about time the Liberals stood up, respected the ruling of their own Speaker, tabled the documents with no black lines in them and let the RCMP do its investigation. If they do not, we could be here for many more days, or maybe weeks or months. It is hard to say.

I feel sorry for the poor member for Hamilton Centre, who will have to sit and listen to this for what could be days, weeks or months, but I can assure him that it is going to happen unless the documents are tabled. That is an easy way to finish this.

With those comments, I will wrap up and say that I look forward to answering any questions the members for Hamilton Centre and Waterloo might have.

[Privilege, October 28th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, maybe while I am on my feet and while the NDP wants to get into the conversation, let us talk a bit about what the NDP has done over the last three years. The first six years were not so bad, but the last three years are why we have the government we have today, why bad decisions have happened and the reason for our cost of living.

Today we heard the March food bank statistics. The member, I am sure, has plenty of people in Hamilton Centre lining up at the food bank, mainly because of policies of the Liberal government that the New Democrats have supported. Every NDP member is on the bubble when it comes to the next election. Members had better believe it. All they have to do is look at the polls. I bet they have looked at the polls—