I want to start with the acknowledgement that only those that would always be political expect others to always be political, Mr. Speaker.

It’s my obligation to make recommendations to the cabinet to appoint judges. I take that responsibility seriously and, obviously, I want advice from those that I respect. The advisory committee provides the advice. It has more than two members on it; in fact, it has three judges on the committee. So I don’t know if the member opposite is maligning all of the members of the committee or just the ones that she doesn’t agree with, which kind of is ironic given that she doesn’t want their advice and she doesn’t think we should have it.

I take the committee’s collective advice, Mr. Speaker, and these “Liberals in sandals” over here are no different than these Liberals over here in that they want to appoint advisers for me. Shocking that a Conservative government wants to hear from Conservative voices. As Brian Lilley said, they’re only upset because they think they should still get to make the decisions.

Interjections.

I can tell you that this government takes judicial appointments seriously. We have appointed 100 judicial positions, Mr. Speaker, and I would take exception if they could even point to one that isn’t qualified. We have a committee that’s been in place since 1985. It’s been populated with volunteers and judges ever since. We have a gold standard of appointments of judges, and that standard has continued. Only because the Toronto Star wrote a story are the NDP now paying attention. I am happy to go through every single one of the judicial appointments, and you will see that they are, in fact, qualified.

Mr. Speaker, you would think a government in waiting would have a little better understanding of how the system works—but I’m afraid we don’t. So we will continue with the—

I guess the Liberals are feeling left out. I actually thought they would keep their heads down on this kind of issue. Their record of appointments is abysmal and irresponsible. The former chair of the exact same committee was a Liberal donor and supporter, along with several other members of the same committee.

Here’s the thing: That doesn’t bother me. That doesn’t bother me at all. What bothers me is the hypocrisy of the other side—

What bothers me is the inconsistency of the other side in trying to avoid transparency. They’re mostly upset because something was said out loud that they want buried.

We were elected—we’re not just on this side of the House, Mr. Speaker, we’re on that side of the House. Our majority sits over there. We have an obligation to the public to make appointments in the interests of the public. We will listen to conservative voices and we will make responsible appointments.

Interjections.