Mr. Speaker, a number of issues have fallen by the wayside in this empty budget. What has not fallen by the wayside is the good old Conservative approach of confronting the provinces instead of working with them.
Now, the Minister of Finance, who no longer knows whether his government is for or against income splitting, has decided to repeat his ill-advised ultimatum about the Canada job grant. That drew some harsh criticism from many provinces.
Why are the Conservatives getting caught up in pointless bickering that could so easily be avoided?