Madam Speaker, when the Ethics Commissioner's office contacts myself, I respond. I suspect members on both sides of the House will respond, whether he or she is a New Democrat, a Conservative or a Liberal, where follow up takes place with individual members because the commissioner's office may have some concerns. That is no different than what the Minister of Finance has done.
The Minister of Finance has made it very clear. He has said that he will meet with the Ethics Commissioner and will seek her advice and recommendations, and act accordingly. That is the responsible thing to do, and what each and every one of us are obligated to do.
As some of my colleagues say, what we have today is an effort from the official opposition, joined by the New Democrats, to go on some sort of a witch hunt or character assassination. Let us go into the details of that.
Why should Canadians, or anyone who is listening, believe the Conservatives or the New Democrats who at every opportunity they get attack the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister, and others within this government? One might argue that they are the opposition and that is their job. Yes, there is a great deal of merit for that argument. Having said that, it is every initiative.
I want to remind the viewers and the members opposite to degree they have been critical of this government and, in particular, of the Minister of Finance. People should ask themselves why they should believe in and take the advice of the Conservatives when they have been critical of the Minister of Finance since day one.
We would be ill-advised to take advice from the Conservatives on this and many other issues in which they have demonstrated they have a natural, instinctive bias to attack. That is demonstrated in their actions. I believe Canadians understand and appreciate what this government has been able to accomplish in a relatively short period of time through the actions of the Minister of Finance.
Again, I highlight, as I go through each one of these initiatives, that we will find the Conservative Party attacking the Minister of Finance, with no exceptions.
The most recent one is the tax fairness policy. Day in and day out, the Conservative Party fights against tax fairness. The Minister of Finance led the debate among Canadians, which started, in a big way, back the month of July, when a presentation was made.
It is interesting as there seems to be a bit of a divide between the New Democrats and the Conservatives on this. I do not hear members of the NDP criticizing many aspects of the tax fairness policy. I give them credit for recognizing the fact that the issue is tax fairness.
On the other hand, the Conservatives yell and scream that this is an attack on business and middle class. Nothing could be further from the truth with respect to the whole tax initiative. It has been that way since the month of July. It all about tax fairness. People would not know if they listened to the opposition party, as they take the extreme position and try to use it as a wedge issue. In fact, the government has been very supportive. I use small business as an example.
How often do we hear Conservative members saying that the Liberals are attacking small businesses, or the government is attacking small businesses? I would suggest that they wake up and understand reality.
It was only yesterday that we as a government fulfilled a campaign platform promise. We actually made a commitment to reduce the small business tax rate from 10.5% to 9%. That is something we promised, and that is something we fulfilled. It was announced yesterday.
That is not the first time we have been there to help small business. I talk to small businesses. If members talk to small businesses, what they will find out is that the primary thing every small business wants is customers. If they have customers, they have opportunities.