Well, I expect there to be a ruling on this, and I just want to say that I very much sympathize with the sentiments of my Conservative colleagues, but I would just point out that the NDP, as a condition of support for the government, has proposed that we bring in dental care for nine million Canadians who have the lowest incomes. You have to make under $70,000 of net family income, and you can't have any dental insurance. These are the poorest people in the country. These are people making $15,000 or $20,000 a year, such as seniors who are living on fixed incomes, who can't get their teeth fixed. This plan would allow these people to go to the dentist instead of paying out of pocket, and to get better care, by the way, because they don't have to get their teeth pulled.
The Conservatives either don't care that these people get any oral health care at all or they insist on driving these poorest, most marginalized people to the dentist to pay out of pocket for what is essentially primary health care. The NDP plan, which we've worked on in concert with my Liberal colleagues to bring in, would save these people real dollars, as well as improve their health care, yet the Conservatives oppose it. They voted against it, and they oppose it. I'm sitting here, listening to a claim that the Conservatives care about people's month-to-month living costs and people freezing in winter. What about seniors writhing in agonizing pain and having to spend money for that?
I just think it has to go on the record that if there's any virtue in politics in being consistent, I think this is a situation that calls out for that. I'd be happy to have the Conservatives prove me wrong in this by supporting dental care and coming out and saying they're going to vote for it, and the same thing with pharmacare. I just can't let a statement by Conservatives that claims to care about poor people in this country stand on the record as a justification for a vote when they take positions antithetical to that in the next breath.