Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member to reconsider his position with regard to the capital gains exemption. As the member knows the $100,000 lifetime exemption did come in under a previous government two Parliaments ago.
There were two very serious flaws in regard to that exemption. First, it did not establish a V-day value for investments. Therefore anyone who had a holding gain prior to the introduction of that exemption got an automatic windfall. Second, it did not restrict the types of eligible investments under that exemption. Therefore investments in matters such as Florida vacation properties were eligible for an exemption. I have to ask the member whether he believes that kind of investment really benefits Canada.
One has to consider whether or not there is a logical stopping point. There is no question that some have benefited from this exemption and there is no question that others would like to. Where do we stop the process? There is no logical ending point.
The question therefore is if today we had no exemption would the hon. member consider introducing it as a measure which would benefit Canadians today? I think the answer is simply no.