Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a question of the hon. member about the political wisdom of the government's narrow ideological meanspirited cuts which clearly played exclusively to its own political base.
I notice on the Conservative blogs many were rejoicing in these cuts because they appealed to the biases of the hard right Conservative base.
However, if it is the object of the government to reach out and expand its electorate, to get a stronger showing in the next election, why would it wish to have such narrowly focused cuts playing only to those who would vote for the government and alienating the majority of those whose votes it needs?
The $13 billion surplus first of all is a Liberal surplus because it was produced in a year when the Liberal Party was the government for 90% of that year. This was our legacy to the new Conservative government, just as its legacy to us back in 1993 was a $42 billion deficit.
My question is in terms of political intelligence related to the first. Why would the government choose to announce cuts on precisely the same day that it announced this huge surplus giving Canadians the impression it had absolutely no need to make these narrow ideologically based cuts that played only to its own base and alienated most Canadians?