Mr. Kelly, your members have suffered a real drubbing over the last three years. They've been hit by heavy new regulations at a provincial level and they're imminently facing new federal carbon taxes with no prospect of any offsetting reductions.
They came under attack with the tax increases of July 18, 2017, which were an existential threat to many businesses. Also, any so-called gains that had been made were already there, of course. The reduction of the small business rate to 9% was already legislated back in the 2015 budget. The current government took it away and then brought it back, under some pressure, so that's not a gain; it's just a reclamation of something that small businesses already had. The only reason the government backed off in the attack on small businesses that it initiated last summer was that there was a spontaneous grassroots uprising across the country of individual entrepreneurs who are otherwise apolitical but who realized that their very businesses were under threat.
My concern is that as long as the political dynamic doesn't change, that won't change. None of what I just described will change either. The trajectory is set and it will continue.
A moment ago, you said that 25% of seniors think their CPP will rise, when in fact we all know that's not true. If we're lucky, somewhere down the road, 10 to 15 years from now, it will be middle-aged people who will then be retired who will get some break. When you stated that fact, you actually encouraged the government to go ahead with its existing plan, because you pointed to a public relations advantage to them in doing so, even though the public policy advantage is not a real one.
I guess my question relates to whether or not the method of just sending politicians briefing notes and making testimony and writing op-eds in newspapers that politicians read is enough, or if it's time to work on changing public opinion.
I can tell you that politicians go out and door-knock, and if they hear something at 10 or 15 doors in an evening, they act on it, whereas if they get a briefing note from an Ottawa lobbyist....
What's the strategy to invest in changing public opinion instead of just lobbying politicians?