Madam Speaker, I am pleased to learn that my hon. friend is a believer in shareholders' rights. Shareholders across Canada are our next door neighbours, our moms and dads, and our pension funds. In fact, one of the biggest shareholders of all is the Canada pension plan or the Canada Post pension plan. Blue collar workers, many of them unionized, are shareholders. They can only be paid a return on their shareholding investment on after tax corporate profits. There is literally no other way that a shareholder can get a dividend than for a company to pay that dividend out of the after tax profits.
The member and his party want to raise taxes on those profits, leaving less for the dividend receiving shareholder, meaning that all of the people for whom he purports to fight on behalf of would have less of a return, our pension funds would be less funded and the people who invest in companies to create jobs in the initial stage would receive a smaller return.
As a shareholders' rights advocate, I am curious how the member can advocate raising taxes on those same shareholders.