Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's great participation in the House. He is here a stellar number of times, but in being here a stellar number of times, he should know the rule that we do not indirectly refer to a member's participation in the House. I hope when he puts his next question to me, he will apologize for his first comment.
He is suggesting there is double taxation when Canadians have to pay both a federal tax and a provincial tax. I do not know how we would pay for health care and education if there were no provincial tax. We need taxes to do that. I do not know how we would pay for the increase in defence that the opposition wants, or the increase in agriculture that the opposition wants, or all the things that Her Majesty's loyal opposition asks us to pay for every day, if there were no federal tax.
We can talk about tax on tax on top of tax and all of the ramifications, but the bottom line is that a certain amount of tax is needed to run the country. We could change the structure of the tax system to deal with some of the points the member made, but we still need to end up with the same number of taxes.
We could change income taxes, but the member's party is constantly suggesting that we should not increase income taxes. However, we would have to do that if we were to act on his suggestion of changing the tax structure.
The member may have a philosophically correct point about restructuring, but the bottom line is going to be the same. Canadians have to pay the same amount of taxes to pay for their schools, to pay for their hospitals, and to pay for national defence. They will have to pay the same amount of taxes to support the elderly, to support the disabled, to support farmers, and all the things Canadians want. There are various orders of government to pay for it.