Well, I respect the ruling of the chair, but let me just say that as someone who also is proud to represent women who are small business owners in my own riding, I understand the pressures on them as fully as you do. It is a fabrication and a misrepresentation of the highest order to suppose that the Liberal Party of Canada wants to increase the tax burden on those hard-working women. It's just false.
We've said that the corporate tax breaks proposed by the Conservative government for large profitable corporations don't make sense when you're in a $56-billion deficit, and we're proud of that statement and believe in it strongly. But to extrapolate from that to the proposition that I propose to increase the tax burden on the woman selling candles in your business district or to increase taxes on the hard-working women who run businesses in my constituency is absolutely false. It's mischief-making.
We're here to promote fairness and equality for women. I'm as aware as you that women are the backbone of the small and medium-sized enterprises in our country. I'm immensely proud of the contribution they make. I want to do everything to help them, the same way you do. There are some things that don't need to divide our parties.
I know who employs Canadians. I know the important role they play. So let's tell them the truth about our party platforms in the next election, and let's work together, to the degree we can in this difficult environment, to promote small business ownership by women, women hiring other women, and women promoting women in the workplace. These are goals that I believe in passionately.