Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scrapping the idea of a new public appointments commission after opposition MPs rejected his nominee to chair it.

"So what that tells us is that we won't be able to clean up the process in this minority Parliament. We'll obviously need a majority government to do that in the future," Harper said Tuesday.

However, an NDP MP pronounced herself puzzled by Harper's reaction over the vote against Gwyn Morgan.

"It seems like he's taking his bat and ball and going home. ...,'' said Peggy Nash.

"The committee did not reject the position. The committee did not support the suitability of Mr. Morgan for the position.''

The commission was a key part of the Tories' accountability package aimed at creating more transparency in federal appointments.

The House of Commons operations committee voted 6-5 to ask Harper to withdraw his appointment of the former energy executive because of controversial remarks Morgan has made over immigrants and multiculturalism.

In a telephone interview with CTV Calgary, the former Calgary oil executive who ran EnCana Corp. dismissed the opposition's rejection of a public appointments commission as nothing but "partisan politics."

"I think Canadians should be disappointed by the way this process has played out," Morgan said.

"All I wanted was to help my country, besides that, there wasn't a lot in it for me."

Morgan would have been paid a salary of $1 per year as head of the commission.

Harper spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart Olsen criticized the opposition for voting down the government's "key efforts to clean up the appointments process.

"The NDP and the Bloc will have to explain why they co-operated with a party that doesn't want to clean up the government appointments process to snub one of Canada's most respected business leaders," she said.

Nash, who put forward the motion, said she considered Morgan's appointment inappropriate because of his previous controversial comments about immigrants bringing violence to Canada.

In a Feb. 22 speech in Toronto, Morgan blasted corruption under the previous Liberal government before questioning the wisdom of multiculturalism, saying it's a value that divides Canadians rather than unites them.

"Recent riots in France and Australia are timely and troubling examples," said Morgan. "It seems as if 'multiculturalism' in these countries has created 'subcultures' bearing little relation to the mainstream culture and values of the country."

Morgan last year linked Canada's gang-violence problem to immigration from places such as Jamaica and Indochina -- "where culture is dominated by violence and lawlessness."

Nash, a Toronto MP, told Morgan: "You said and I quote: 'The social side is too evident with the runaway violence driven mostly by Jamaican immigrants in Toronto'."

Morgan denied he was intolerant, saying: "We basically love the Caribbean. We tend their churches. In fact, in January we were at an all-black church."

However, he refused to back down, saying, "The Caribbean drug trade and gangs in our cities are happening and we need to talk about it."

Harper could still have proceeded in naming Morgan to chair the commission, but doing so would have gone against the will of opposition parties.

Stewart Olsen said Harper will invite Morgan to serve the country in another role.

With a report from CTV's Robert Fife