Human Rights  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to the role that our government can play in helping to end one of the greatest human rights tragedies of our new century. I speak of the Chinese government's brutal repression of freedom of conscience in general and of Falun Gong in par

Speech From The Throne  Mr. Speaker, I will be dividing my time with the member for Wetaskiwin. As is traditional, I will begin my comments by thanking the voters of my riding of Lanark—Carleton for placing their trust in me and for sending me to this place as their representative. Lanark—Carleton is a

Speech From The Throne  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member, whose riding adjoins my own, for his questions and his comments. When it comes to the question of federal transfers and the use of tax points and tax rooms, it is not a new innovation of my party, nor is it something on which we stand alone.

Ethics Counsellor  Mr. Speaker, let us go over the facts again. The Prime Minister pressured the president of the Business Development Bank, a man directly dependent upon him for his job, to give a loan to a hotel next to a golf course in which the Prime Minister held an interest. This is clearly

Ethics Counsellor  Mr. Speaker, the weakness of the ethics counsellor highlights the ethical weakness of the government. First the ethics counsellor is forced to exonerate the Prime Minister's inappropriate behaviour, and only when the Prime Minister is ready is the ethics counsellor now allowed t

Ethics Counsellor  Mr. Speaker, several days ago the ethics counsellor stated that the Prime Minister's shares in the Shawinigan golf course were not in a blind trust. Why then did the industry minister publicly state that those shares were in a blind trust?

Ethics Counsellor  Mr. Speaker, Canadians want to make sure that government appointments and government programs are equally available to all Canadians in all provinces. Does the industry minister consider it fair or ethical that the Prime Minister could interfere with the Business Development Ban

Water Contamination  Mr. Speaker, for some time now, families in Shannon, near Quebec City, have been having serious water contamination problems. This morning, on the front page of the daily Le Soleil , these families could read that the Department of National Defence has had a report since 1998 de

Water Contamination  Mr. Speaker, this answer will bring little comfort to families in Shannon. The Liberal government is quick to criticize others, but slow to recognize its own mistakes. Could the minister at least tell us what are the possible dangers for the population of Shannon and what measu

Intergovernmental Affairs  Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs stated that the leader of my party and the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party were promoting blackmail by western separatists. I have to assume that the minister's words mean that he feels that it is neve

Intergovernmental Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. Deputy Prime Minister for that spectacularly irrelevant response. During the election Alice Farness, a Liberal candidate, threatened Saskatchewan farmers that they would get no help from Ottawa if they did not vote Liberal. So far, the government ha

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member made a minor factual error when he cited the number of countries of large geographical size in the world that have the first past the post system. He mentioned two of the top three. Russia and China are both larger than the United States. Therefore, strict

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity to read the motion once more. That this House strike a special all-party committee to examine the merits of various models of proportional representation and other electoral reforms, with a view to recommending reforms that would

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I am not exactly sure how the hon. gentleman feels that having one's headquarters in Calgary constitutes support for western separatism. If that were the case, surely when the federal government made the decision in the 1970s to

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I agree with just about everything that the hon. member has said. I personally think there should be a somewhat broader scope for referenda, particularly for citizen initiated referenda. He would probably agree with me that the system used in Switzerland and Austral