Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his excellent remarks. Unlike the previous comments, they clearly do deserve an answer.
In particular, I agree with his points. The five points that I made are significant but not huge, and a government that cannot effectively negotiate in good faith on the basis of differences as limited as these is not a government that is a competent government.
With respect to the second part of my colleague's question, study after study around the world shows that if there is money with which to cut taxes, it is far fairer and more efficient to cut income taxes rather than to the GST or sales taxes.
When we were in government, we had cut the lowest income tax rate from 16% to 15%. The Conservatives came in and did things in the opposite direction to what every economist on the planet would have recommended. They raised the income tax rate from 15% to 15.5% and cut the GST, the opposite direction of what the rest of the world thinks is appropriate policy.