Mr. Speaker, like the hon. member from the NDP, I am not sure that the government's understanding is all that good yet. I think that the Conservatives are not quite there yet. The only thing they seem to understand is electioneering. At some point, they throw crumbs here and there and claim to be delivering, telling us that this actually meets the needs and aspirations of the people of both Quebec and Canada. While some money does end up in the right places, I do not think that they have even the faintest glimmer of understanding of what really happened. They have spread so much around that they actually hit the target now and then. I do not think that they have any real understanding, because theirs is truly a conservative ideology.
Shortly after they were elected for the first time, they were lagging behind the United States. What did they do? They lowered taxes, as President Bush had done in the U.S. They increased military spending and took other similar steps, almost exactly as President Bush had done, and, as a result, they found themselves in a rather precarious economic position. There are things that they cannot undo. They have cut taxes. This certainly helps some people, but they would have done much better with a more targeted measure, even if that meant forgetting this 2% cut and targeting those with the greatest needs. I do not think that they really understood anything. Ultimately, the best way to prove that the people think the same way would be to hold an election as soon as possible; then, they would see that the people understood.