Mr. Chair, I appreciate my hon. friend's comments. I am dealing with this in a very serious manner. Let me be clear. I am a Conservative. I do not believe that government is the all powerful, almighty, all way to do it.
The hon. member suggested that if we put a cap on it, that would solve the problem. The banks know how to make a billion dollars a year. I think they are smart enough to figure out a way around it. They will do it with fees, with extra monthly charges, with extra charges on merchants who have to deal with it.
The underlying most powerful thing in any economy, in any society is not the government. That is where we have a very clear difference in philosophy. We can make laws here but those laws have to conform with reality. They have to actually deal with what goes on out there. We cannot repeal the law of gravity no more than we can repeal the law of supply and demand, no more than we can repeal the bankers' ability to make money. They are very talented at it.
While I appreciate the suggestion that they are trying to help and so forth, ultimately the solution is futile. It is a band-aid. It is a propaganda tool. It is nothing more than a charade. It does not help people. It helps electioneering. It helps with slogans. It helps on the campaign trail, but it does not actually solve the problem.
The problem rests more with the people. That is why I concentrated on education. I used a device to catch members' attention, to wake them up to the fact that ultimately we need to give people the tools. People themselves would be more powerful in dealing with the banks, in dealing with corporations, by using the tools that we gave them than we as the government would be.
There is a very clear ideological and philosophical divide between me and the hon. member on that point. That is where I come from on this matter. Legislation is not the answer to everything. If we push down on one, inevitably another will spring up. If we continue to regulate and continue to put pressures here and there, how does it help Canadians if we cannot at the end of the day put more money in their pockets? We do that by growing the economy, by cutting taxes, by cutting payroll taxes, areas that actually put more money in people's pockets.
The hon. member's party supports higher taxes but less money given to the credit card companies in interest rates. At the end of the day, the money is still out of Canadians' pockets. That the NDP members want to take with their left hand and give back with their even farther left hand does not help. Canadians need money in their pockets. They need it because of a productive economy. They need it to grow.
The solution, while it is great for propaganda, does absolutely nothing to help Canadians over the long term because ultimately the banks will get around it, so what is the point?