Madam Speaker, I want to welcome my colleague back to the House. I always enjoyed the brief times we had talking together and I know he fancies himself as an outdoorsman coming from rural Ontario.
The member talked about the surplus and how we squandered surpluses. We must remember that a surplus occurs in a government because of overtaxation. We have taken that money in surpluses and pounded it against the debt. We also made sure we gave back money to the taxpayers through a number of tax credits as well as tax reductions. That has benefited Canadians from one coast of this country to the other.
We also know that the fictitious contingency fund that members on the other side continue to talk about was only there to pay for Liberal pet projects which became a pet peeve of mine. That was one of the reasons I jumped into political life because Liberals were taking the funds and putting it into programs to help their friends.
In the throne speech we said we are finally going to get rid of the gun registry. It has been an ineffective program brought forward by the previous Liberal government. I know constituents right across rural Canada hate the gun registry. How is my hon. colleague going to vote when it comes time to vote on eliminating it?