I'll throw out where I was hoping to go with this and I'll have to respond to the nonsense I'm hearing here, Mr. Chair.
To begin with, I think it's a fair statement to say that no government...which is why I totally reject the statement that the Minister of Canadian Heritage is “attacking” artists. The Minister of Canadian Heritage has fought for the most significant budgets of any federal government, for all forms of the arts in this country, in this nation's history.
So to go out and suggest that he is somehow attacking artists is reprehensible, and I'd encourage you to withdraw that statement at some point, Mr. Waddell, because it's reprehensible, that statement. Mr. Angus can say it; he's a partisan. But I think it's reprehensible.
Secondly, if you want to go back to the issue of the “i-tax”, I'm open to talking about it; they're close-minded about it. But I'd like to propose to you why it doesn't make sense and why--