Mr. Speaker, the minister is giving examples of countries that have done the same thing. The problem with the minister's argument is that he is the one who is most likely to tell Canadians bluntly that there is no crisis in Canada, that the deficit has been taken care of, that we have no deficit problem, that there is no budget crisis, that we are different than other countries and that we lead the G7.
If that is all true, why punish the poorest Canadians? Why punish those who are most vulnerable?