Leader, in my speech on Tuesday, I mentioned that more and more Liberals are running away from Justin Trudeau. I gave you the example of how the B.C. Liberal Party is changing its name to delete the word “Liberal.”

In the Senate, for the first time since Confederation, we no longer have senators who dare call themselves Liberals. We have a leader of the Liberal government who does not want to be seen as leading and does not want anyone to believe he is a member of the Liberal Party.

Today we learned that the Liberal candidate in a provincial by‑election in Newfoundland and Labrador is, in fact, a federal Conservative Party member. He says openly that Trudeau has to go. That sounds like common sense to me. What does it sound like to you, leader?

Thank you for the question. I’m going to take the time I have to answer to make sure that I’m being parliamentary.

It sounds like a colossal waste of the Senate’s time to ask questions like this. The democratic process, which is fundamental to our liberal democracy, allows individuals who present themselves for public office — to their credit — to identify themselves as they wish and to express their opinions as they wish. I think that is something to be championed.

I do wonder sometimes as to what some colleagues in this chamber believe is a proper use of Senate time when this has nothing to do with Senate business, legislative business or the priorities of the government. This has nothing more to add except to feed social media posts.

A colossal waste of time is your non-answers that we constantly get in this Senate chamber — constantly. That is a colossal waste of time. You, leader, and your answers are a colossal waste of time.

This is the situation for the last Liberal premier in Canada. He has to run anti-Trudeau, common-sense Conservative candidates to hope to win a riding for the Liberals. Senator Gold, should Liberals be included on the list of endangered species in Canada?

I stand by my answer to your previous question.