Mr. Speaker, I think the Minister of State for Science and Technology correctly points out that Canadians should be alarmed by the prospect of tax increases. We remember that when the Liberals actually formed the government way back in 1993 they had claimed that they would slay a huge deficit. However, that was a period when we came through terrible deficit financing. It was the Conservative government that took initiatives to slay that deficit.
We remember when the Liberals promised to get rid of the GST. That was their promise in the election but, gosh, they forgot about that. They kept the tax and reaped the $35 billion in tax benefits that came into the government that helped reduce the deficit of the day.
It seems to me that the Liberals also campaigned against free trade and wanted to renegotiate that, which was the other initiative brought in by Brian Mulroney that actually contributed to slaying that deficit.
The Liberals' contribution to slaying that huge deficit in that day was to take $25 billion out of the health care funding which created a crisis for the decade to follow in terms of health care funding for the provinces.
I think the minister's concerns about science and technology funding are certainly well placed to remind us that the Liberals cut the science and technology funding in the same era. We think that by making our investments in the kind of infrastructure at a time when the country needs investment to create jobs and get communities going right across the country and lowering taxes at the same time with personal exemption increases for 2010, lowering taxes for all--