Mr. Speaker, I am very glad to have this opportunity to speak on the budget. I have been chomping at the bit all day trying to hold back on these most curious developments that have occurred in the last 24 hours. What a bizarre day this has been. What an interesting turn of events.
Where do I begin? Let me start with the stark political opportunism of this document, this budget presented to Canadians yesterday by the Liberal government in its total betrayal of all the progressive voters that the Liberals lured to support them during the last election with now obviously false promises to invest in their future.
As we noted during question period today, it is not curious that during the last election the Prime Minister was galloping around this country luring progressive voters to vote Liberal because of that monstrous threat posed by the Conservatives? Now here we are, in the first really big moment in the life of this Liberal minority government, the presentation of the budget for 2005-06, and the only people smiling are the Conservatives. The only people happy with this budget are members of the Conservative Party.