Senator Plett: Answer the question. This is Question Period.

Senator Plett: Yet they didn’t all stay in that one hotel room. If there had only been 56 people in that hotel room, I would accept that as being very frugal.

Senator Gold, you and I are old enough to remember the old vinyl records where the needle got stuck and it played the same thing over and over again. You remind me of that vinyl record.

We know how many people were there. We know there were prime ministers there, but we also know the Governor General and Stephen Harper did not stay there. Tell me if Paul Martin stayed there. Tell me if Jean Chrétien stayed there. If that’s what you’re inferring, Senator Gold, I would accept that as an answer.

Canadians deserve the truth. They deserve to be heard, and they deserve transparency from our Prime Minister. This is why I’m asking you these questions.

Yes, it was expensive to stay there. I hear there were rooms that cost $1,700 a night. Not this one. This one cost $7,300 a night for five nights, Senator Gold — a $36,500 invoice for this room alone. Senator Gold, $36,500 is the annual salary for someone working forty hours a week at $18.25 an hour.

How on earth does Prime Minister Trudeau think this expense is reasonable and appropriate, when at the end of the day he is not personally footing the bill but rather asking and expecting Canadians to?

Senator Gold, yesterday, Prime Minister Trudeau slipped and basically admitted in the House of Commons that it was all about him. Will you, Senator Gold, and your government come clean and tell Canadian taxpayers straight up: Was it Prime Minister Trudeau who stayed in that room?

Senator Plett: Why don’t I go get one for you?

Senator Plett: Not Trudeau.

Senator Plett: Not for you to make statements.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Senator Gold, yesterday during Question Period you said:

. . . in the interests of those who have other questions to ask, no doubt of insignificant importance compared to your question, I have nothing further to add to my answer.

Those comments, Senator Gold, are outrageous, and yet they directly reflect one of the core principles of this Trudeau government, which is contempt for the Canadian parliamentary process.

Our parliamentary system, Senator Gold, was built on the premise of a governing party and an opposition party. The opposition has a responsibility, and that is to keep the government in check. We do so by asking questions. Although your government claims to be more transparent and accountable, the reality is quite different, Senator Gold, and your non-answers to our questions make that point very clear.

Senator Gold, let me try this again, and I gave you notice of this question. I trust you will thank me for that, as you usually do when somebody gives you notice.

Who stayed in the infamous River Suite at the Corinthia hotel in London?