Mr. Speaker, I think our government has been clear from the very beginning about this. We asked the wealthiest 1% to pay a little more so that we could give a tax break to the middle class. It was the first thing we did, but the Conservatives voted against it. It comes as no surprise that they would vote against it, because there has been a stark difference between their approach and ours.
For instance, when the Conservatives fought to keep sending the Canada child benefit to families of millionaires, we took a different approach, one that is based on the needs of Canadian families. It is more generous and free of taxes, and it is helping to lift hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty.
That approach differentiates us as well with respect to the TFSA. One of the Conservative policies during their former mandate was to double the TFSA limit to $11,000. I wonder how many Canadians at the end of the year have $11,000 after taxes to put in their TFSA. The American who invented the TFSA said that in the long term this would put the Canadian government in a fiscal straitjacket. When the former Conservative finance minister was asked what he was going to do about it, he said that it was a problem for Stephen Harper's granddaughter to solve.
That is the Conservatives' approach: to give more to the wealthiest while letting inequalities flourish and grow. That is what they did during their decade in government.
We have taken a different approach, and it is working. Statistics Canada, in the last two weeks, said that poverty has been reduced by 20% over the last three years in Canada. That is huge. I think it is something that Canadians should be proud of.