Mr. Speaker, that is the question I cannot answer. That is what makes this whole exercise so bizarre. The numbers are obviously against doing what the government is doing, to try to phrase it properly.
I have some letters sitting on the desk of the member who happens to be the finance critic for my party. He sent me a little note. I think he is over in his office and one of the pages just brought it. He wants me to tell Canadians that the tobacco tax reduction is the only tax cut the present government has given the Canadian people since taking office in 1993.
In reference to the question, I am perplexed as to why the government would go down a road which is such a sorry road. It has an opportunity to do something and it is not doing it. All I can say is it has to be caving in to big business, to the big tobacco manufacturers. I do not think there is an answer other than that.