Madam Speaker, in response to the member's raising of the issue of tax fairness, I will quote what his colleague, the MP for Whitby, said about the Liberal government's approach to tax changes. In an email to probably hundreds of entrepreneurs, she said, “Let me start by apologizing to each and every entrepreneur, small business owner, physician, and constituent in the Town of Whitby for the tone and the language that was used during the roll-out of these proposals.”
The rhetoric of my friend from Winnipeg in this place is legendary, but when he has one or two dozen members of his own caucus disagreeing that this is about tax fairness, apologizing to entrepreneurs, farmers, and to employers for the tone used by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, that should be the signal to the deputy House leader of that party that consultation should be extended.
I remember that when that member was in the third party and there were a time allocation motion speeding things up, he called it “an assault on democracy”.