Mr. Speaker, what is curious is that months after events in opposition ridings and after the date the Prime Minister alleges that he cut the sponsorship program, the opposition ridings received a sprinkling of money: $3,000 for the Cobden fair; $3 million for a Liberal minister's riding in downtown Toronto.
Once again it is time to talk about the true victims of this government scandal. Every dollar that gets skimmed off into the pocket of some Liberal ad agency is one dollar less for health care, for farmers, children, seniors, the military, the environment, affordable housing, research and development, and a host of other items that should be priorities of the government and which obviously are not.
Canadians were shocked to learn during the Prime Minister's recent farewell tour in eastern Ontario that he is so preoccupied by scandal that he was unaware of the child poverty in eastern Ontario. Liberal policies are impoverishing the people in rural Canada and nowhere is it more evident than on the faces of our children. It is the most vulnerable in our society who end up paying for--