That's a long question, but I have a few very quick responses.
To be frank, I am less concerned about inequality; I've always been more concerned about poverty. We have addressed seniors' poverty to some extent, but not with respect to single seniors. I was glad with the action taken in the budget with respect to the top-up of the GIS in that respect. We do have a serious issue of redistribution going on from working people to elderly people, things like income splitting, the OAS, and other things that we have to remember and ask whether this is the appropriate redistribution we wish to have, when we have some poverty issues to deal with among working people.
In my view the important thing about tax reform in general is giving it a framework. Usually the best types of tax reform are ones that lower rates, not raise them, and ones that broaden the tax base to make things more neutral in the business tax structure. In the personal tax structure, it's also to achieve more neutrality among equal resource taxpayers, and also to ensure that we have the appropriate progressiveness in the tax system. When you look at the calculations on progressivity, we do have a progressive tax system in Canada. There have been publications on that recently, and if one looks at this carefully, I think you'll find that the only question is how progressive you wish to make it. We have made it more progressive over the past number of years—quite the opposite of what people argue. I think that generally the important thing about tax reform is to give a government the framework that will allow it to dismiss some of the bad ideas that often come about and lead to erosion and narrowness of the tax base and ineffective incentives.