Mr. Speaker, this is the larger issue of ethics and accountability, the need for clear rules that apply to everyone. Certainly, when the Prime Minister is found guilty, there is going to be an extra burden on the Prime Minister because there is an extra level of breach of the public trust.
When we do these one-off opposition day motions, the problem is that we are dealing with just the Prime Minister, not the larger issue that we have, using the old sexist language, of the gentleman's code that has always operated in Parliament. It is based on the assumption that people are going to abide by the rules. Also, as we saw in the Senate, people look out for each other and breaches are not considered all that problematic because of the club we are in.
Breaches are problematic. Breaches are particularly problematic when it is about the ability of powerful corporate interests to make those calls into the Prime Minister's Office to get things fixed or get things changed. We need to have clear rules of transparency, in terms of who was lobbying and how they were lobbying, and in terms of the gifts that are considered appropriate and not appropriate. The Prime Minister clearly breached those.
We need the ability to administer monetary penalties for the abuse of public trust by officials who will be using their position, their powerful position, to further interests of friends, lobbyists, and party members.
Out of this conversation in the House today should be the beginning of a larger discussion on the need to reform the Conflict of Interest Act to make sure that it applies to everyone in varying degrees, so that the backbenchers have one standard, there is a higher standard for parliamentary secretaries, a much higher standard for ministers of cabinet, and the highest standard has to be for the Prime Minister of this country. We have to be able to put our trust, regardless of partisan lines, in the integrity of the Prime Minister.