House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 64% of the vote.
Ethics October 29th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, there has been no change of story. On the contrary, the events are extremely well known.
Senators collected expenditures that they should not have collected, in our judgment, and of course a member of my staff facilitated an improper payment on that. That member has been removed, and those senators who have taken improper payment should be removed from the public payroll.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, once again, Mr. Wright has been very clear on that in his court filings. He has been very clear on all of the facts. They are in black and white. Mr. Wright says very clearly that the decision was taken with his money. It was his decision and his alone, and he admits that this was the wrong course of action. He takes full responsibility for that decision. He is being held accountable, as it should be.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party reports on its spending during elections.
There are rules in place for reporting election expenses. That is what the Conservative Party does. I wish the NDP were just as transparent with some of the union expenditure it gets!
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, once again, the member knows very well that what I said was that all of the expenses of Senator Wallin and indeed all of the expenses of the Senate would be examined and appropriate action would be taken. Those examinations of the case of Senator Wallin have been taken, and the Senate is now trying to take appropriate action, as it should.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Election expenses are reported by the parties. Mr. Speaker, the reality is that parliamentarians, people who are in legislatures, have partisan views and partisan affiliation. We expect them to be transparent about those things.
The solution is not to have senators or anybody else pretend they are non-partisan. It is to have them elected so they are accountable to the Canadian people.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Once again, Mr. Speaker, we know that parliamentarians of all parties travel on parliamentary and party business. We know this. What is relevant is whether they respect the rules that are in place and the spirit of those rules.
When they do not respect the rules or the spirit of the rules, we expect corrective action to be taken. If we do not have corrective action, we expect there to be consequences.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, there is no proof to support that allegation.
The hon. member is now just starting to throw mud without any facts whatsoever. The senator herself has said that is not correct.
I am not aware on what basis he is saying that, but when I look at the NDP I remember the old saying, “the more we throw mud, the more we lose ground”.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Again, Mr. Speaker, he alleges that many people knew about this. That is simply not correct.
It was Mr. Wright's decision, using his own resources and by his own admission, documented, he told very few people.
The fact of the matter is that it is the virtually universal view in this party that if a person cannot follow rules, cannot respect the standards of integrity in their behaviour, people do not want them to be a member of the caucus of the Conservative Party.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Duffy is the one who informed Canadians that he had reimbursed his expenses.
It was Mr. Duffy himself who announced on national television that he had repaid these expenses. He announced that he had taken out a loan against his personal assets to repay these expenses.
That was obviously not correct. It was completely false, and for that reason, when that was proven to be false and showed up to be false, he was expelled from the Conservative caucus.
Ethics October 24th, 2013
Once again, Mr. Speaker, I addressed that matter months ago.
Mr. Wright made this decision. He has been very clear. He informed very few people. It was his own decision and his own initiative. Any insinuation or any suggestion that I knew or would have known is incorrect. As soon as I knew, I made this information available to the public and took the appropriate action.