Mr. Speaker, certainly the new Conservative Party and I think it can be safely said that all Canadians believe in the ethic of common provision, of helping people who cannot help themselves.
Frankly, I find it a little offensive sitting over here as a member of the opposition when Liberals sanctimoniously say that we would leave people out on the streets and that they would do otherwise, when there is a one year waiting list for affordable housing in British Columbia.
A constituent of mine, a guy named Gary, with whom my office has been working very closely over the past couple of days, is a gentleman who has had two brain aneurysms, is struggling with throat cancer, has progressive osteoporosis, and he is going to become homeless on April 1. Gary is a fantastic guy but life has pummelled him. He is a good guy, but life has really pummelled him. He has made some bad choices, but life has pummelled him. He is being left behind. We are having a very hard time finding housing. The frustrating part is that $2 billion goes to the gun registry and all kinds of wasteful spending when it could really help this gentleman.
Here is the difference. The hon. member mentioned the child tax benefit. Here is the difference between the new Conservative Party and the old Liberal Party. In the last campaign the Canadian Alliance and in the campaign prior to that the Progressive Conservative Party had the same position with regard to this.
We said in the last campaign that we believe in a $3,000 per child tax credit. That means that every family in this country would have $3,000 per child as a credit. If a person had zero tax liability, the person would get a $3,000 child tax credit. With this $3,000 parents could raise their children the way they want to.
The Liberal vision is they would rather tax away the $3,000, hire a bureaucrat so the parent can get a second job to pay the taxes to hire the bureaucrat to look after the kid while the parent is in the workforce.
We would rather empower families, so that families have the resources necessary to raise their kids, have the choices to live their lives and have the power to determine their own future. Money would not be hoovered away by the federal government to throw away on mindless programs that simply do not work, that put guys like this fellow Gary, whom my office is working with, into serious jeopardy and put our hospitals into jeopardy, put students into debt and do not meet the needs of our armed forces.
This is a question of priorities. The government is up to its chin in revenue, the largest government budget in Canadian history and the Liberals have all the wrong priorities.
We believe in empowering Canadians. Yes, we believe in the ethic of common provision; all Canadians do. We also believe that what has to come with it is some responsibility and power into the hands of Canadians, so Canadians are more free to choose to live their lives the way they want to, rather than the way the Liberals choose for them.