It's a massive influx of people because it's a resort town and it's a great place to spend the summer.
On July 1, we have a huge parade in terms of people watching it. Our main street is only four blocks long. We have sometimes 80 to 90 floats in it, so, literally, the tail end is bumping into the front end as they go around the circuit.
On a July 1 parade day two or three years ago, my wife and I, as is our tradition, were in a golf cart with my signage on it, going down the main street, throwing out candy from side to side to the little kids, when all of a sudden halfway down the parade route this guy three deep jogs out onto the parade route towards my golf cart. Now, I'm thinking, what the hell's going on here? Is this guy going to come out and take a swing at me? What did I do to get this guy to the point where he had to rush out, which of course is not allowed, to confront me? Well, he didn't confront me in an angry way. He came up and said, and I quote, “Tom, I just wanted to shake your hand. You saved my life.”
He was a small business person who had been assessed by CRA for $67,000, which he didn't feel he owed. Had he been forced to pay it, it would have bankrupted him and his company. I and my staff went to bat. I spoke with our minister. Our staff talked to CRA officials. We got the $67,000 expunged. He didn't have to pay a nickel and he just wanted to let me know that I, in his opinion, saved his life.
Those are the moments, colleagues, that make me realize we have the best job in the world when we can enact that kind of positive change for people and we can help people to that extent. To be able to do so in collaboration with other members from different parties is something that goes beyond my limited ability to describe.
Again, some of my fondest memories as a parliamentarian are with my colleague Dave Christopherson. We will never agree on most anything when it comes to ideology—