Mr. Speaker, I want to first respond to an assertion made by the member for Mississauga South. I sort of agree with his line of thinking. He said that families choose to have a parent stay at home for reasons other than tax benefits, in particular family values and decisions they have made about the worth of having a parent stay at home. I absolutely agree with the member if that is what he believes. I am sure the member for Calgary—Nose Hill agrees with that. It is not a tax driven decision when parents make that decision. We can agree on that.
I want the member to also agree with me given the clear evidence in his tax policies that once a family has made the decision to have a stay at home parent in a single income family that the tax system of this Liberal government, the member's government, then penalizes it for that decision. That is what it is about. It is about the penalty the Liberal tax regime imposes on two parent families that choose to have one parent working in the workplace at home raising the kids because of values and decisions and one parent out working in the general workplace outside the home. The government penalizes them for that decision.
Let us agree on that. We can agree that it is a decision made by the family in the best interest of the family. We can all agree on that. If we can agree on that then we have to agree, given the evidence in the Liberal tax policies, that a family of four that chooses to have one parent stay at home with a single earner income of $55,000 a year is penalized to the tune of some $4,000. That is the whole point of this.
Let us not be confused by all the rhetoric we heard from the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women who I believe is completely out of touch with the ambitions, the goals and the dreams of the average Canadian family. She verifies that statement every time she stands to speak in the House.
My personal opinion, although I know it is shared by many Canadians, is this tax discrimination, this tax penalty does not stand alone as sort of a single thought. I believe it is part of an overall scheme of social engineering that began back in the mid 1960s with the hero of these Liberals, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. No other person in this country set out to purposely destroy the family as we know it as Pierre Elliott Trudeau did. He alone was the driving force that has fuelled the Liberal government's scheme to initially drive the second parent out of the household, to separate that second parent from the responsibilities and the ability to nurture and guide their children in the values that made this country strong in the first place.
It is far more than this penalty. This is a continuation of a social engineering plan put in place by the Liberal government under Trudeau back in the mid 1960s. This government is carrying on that social engineering plan very well.
Why does it not want a parent at home? If there is not a parent at home, if both parents are working, it takes away from the time the children have with their parents to look to them for guidance. It takes away from the strength of the family. It takes away the togetherness of the family unit, the strongest building block we have in our society. At one time we had far more building blocks, far more family units than we have now.
The member from Mississauga South agrees with us. He knows families with a stay at home parent on a single income are discriminated against by the government. I will tell the House how he knows it. He said it. He agreed with us. He said on July 22, 1998, and he will remember this: “The bold reality is that our Income Tax Act does discriminate against families that choose to provide direct parental care”. His Liberal colleagues are all shaking their heads saying how could he make such an outlandish statement. I believe that if the member from Mississauga South looks into his heart he knows about the value of the whole part of our argument. He knows we are right.
The problem is with the majority of his colleagues. I say majority because there are some members who do not because of their beliefs hold positions of any great authority in that government. If there are free thinkers in the Liberal caucus, if there are members who cling to some traditional values, they do not get very far in that government. I congratulate the member for Mississauga South, even though his talk is a little confusing today, and probably a half dozen or more in that government who have had the courage to stand up for their deepest held convictions. Mr. Speaker, you know the value of standing up for your deepest held convictions. I know you appreciate those few members in that party who do as well.
The real nut and bolt in this thing is the tax penalty, the fine, the levy, the increased tax burden placed on two parent, single income families. That is the whole point of it.
There is a severe penalty to pay if any Canadian family makes the decision to have one parent in the workplace and one parent at home. There is a single income. There is a severe penalty to pay.
It seems to every logical, common sense, grassroots, ordinary Canadian to be a travesty, to be an injustice in this country that this government would lay that upon a family which makes the decision to have a parent stay at home to raise the kids while the other parent is out earning a living.
Just think of the sacrifice that parents make when they make that choice. There could be two parents who are capable of earning, say, $50,000 a year each because they have gone to school. They have an education. They have training. That is $100,000 in gross income they could be bringing into the household. But they say no because the nurturing, the guidance, the care of their children is more important. One of them will stay at home. That is a tremendous sacrifice they make from a financial point of view.
Then they find, after they have made that decision, that the Liberal government imposes a penalty on them on top of what they have already given up. I cannot believe the insanity of whatever weird logic the government used in that decision.
I cannot and I will not, when this motion of ours comes to a vote, understand any government member who votes against it. I will not understand the logic of any member of parliament in this House who votes against this motion.
Our party and this member for Prince George—Bulkley Valley will stand up for Canadian families in this House now and forever.