The elected Liberal members of Parliament are going to go into the House of Commons and continue to reflect the party's values of tolerance, diversity and maintaining a social safety net, says Yukon MP Larry Bagnell.

The last Liberal caucus meeting to be chaired by outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin was held Wednesday.

Martin spoke about the 'major accomplishments' of the Liberal party, Bagnell said in an interview this morning from the Vancouver airport while enroute to Whitehorse.

'He spoke of the accomplishments that we need to keep fighting for,' said Bagnell, who cruised to an easy victory in the Jan. 23 election. They include post-secondary education, health care, and the $5-billion Kelowna agreement.

Martin also expressed concern about the Conservatives' suggestion equalization payments need to be rebalanced, said Bagnell.

'It may put us back into deficit,' he said. The Conservatives will not likely have enough revenue to be able to honour all their proposed tax cuts and program initiatives, he added.

But Wednesday's caucus meeting was more about welcoming the seven newly-elected Liberal members of Parliament and saying goodbye to the members who will not be returning to the Hill, said Bagnell.

Some of the goodbyes were directed at outgoing cabinet ministers who had been very attuned to the needs and interests of the North, said Bagnell.

Prominent Liberal losses included Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Treasury Board President Reg Alcock and Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the Minister of State for Northern Development.

Bill Graham, who has been serving as the Minister of National Defence, was named the opposition leader.

Bagnell said Graham has a reputation of 'really listening' to backbenchers. Bagnell has previously worked with Graham in the foreign affairs committee.

Bagnell also worked with Graham in securing search and rescue planes for the North, a promise made to the territories' premiers during the federal election.

Bagnell said he will continue to 'battle' for the delivery of the planes under Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's government, which will be sworn in Monday.

There was no discussion about who will be running for the Liberal leadership or what Liberal members of Parliament will become critics in the Opposition, said Bagnell.

Graham, though, will have the challenge of ensuring the critic roles are not assigned in a way that will give possible leadership contenders an unfair advantage, said Bagnell.

The roles won't be assigned until after Harper announces who will be forming his cabinet.

Bagnell said he hasn't asked for a role in the Liberals' shadow cabinet, though he knows some MPs have.

'I'll do whatever is asked of me,' he said. 'But I have enough to do with constituent work.'

The release of the final report from the Gomery inquiry was made while the Liberals were still in their caucus meeting, said Bagnell.

The two-year inquiry concluded with Justice John Gomery making 19 recommendations, which focus on bureaucratic and political reforms.

Bagnell said he was most interested in seeing the recommendations Gomery made that focus on the restructuring of government to increase the roles of deputy ministers and require a minimum length for their time in office and making the assigning of the jobs more competitive.

He was also interested in the suggestion more funding be provided to parliamentary committees and the recommendation staffers in ministers' offices should not be able to move to a public service position after three years.

'It will be interesting to see what prime minister (designate) Harper does with these,' said Bagnell.

Harper has said the Conservatives will table their proposed Federal Accountability Act as their first piece of legislation. The act will restrict the work of lobbyists, ban corporate and union donations to political parties, give more power to the Auditor-General, Ethics Commissioner and Access to Information Commissioner and protect whistle blowers.

'(The Conservatives) have said a number of items are going to be in a new accountability act, but it doesn't include a lot of the things that were actually in Justice Gomery's recommendations,' said Bagnell.

He added Harper hasn't really announced yet what recommendations will be included in the final legislation.

He said he will be watching to see what Harper does accept and put into the act.