Mr. Speaker, I listened to what the member had to say and quite frankly, I am disappointed with his comments.
It would seem to me that the hon. member would be a little bit more impartial in how he looks at things. He might consider expert testimony from individuals like Kevin Dancey with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants or perhaps Finn Poschmann from the Rotman School of Management. How about David Dodge, the Governor of the Bank of Canada who said that these measures taken by the government demonstrated leadership. Because let us face it, it was not an easy decision. It was not something we wanted to do. It was something we had to do to protect the tax base and protect the future for Canadians.
The Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge, said specifically, without these measures, what was facing the country was lower investment, lower productivity, less employment and less wealth. That is why the government had to act. That is why the Prime Minister demonstrated leadership, something I know the Liberals know very little about, given the state of the Leader of the Opposition and his performance in the House.
I will say one thing to the hon. member. He should stand up for the taxpayers in his jurisdiction and support tax fairness in general as a principle because the people on this side of the House certainly do. We will make the difficult decisions when we need to. I think the hon. member should support difficult decisions when they are made for the right reason, like the one that he spoke of. I would love to know why he does not.