Madam Speaker, this weekend, I went home as I often do. I actually go home every weekend. When I travel, on Friday mornings, I leave Ottawa at five o'clock in the morning, so it is a pretty early flight. I often am wearing a hoodie and I am rather incognito. People do not often realize I am a member of Parliament when I get on.
When I got on my final flight from Calgary to Fort McMurray, there was a group of people. They did not know I was a member of Parliament. They were talking about the so-called tax breaks, this vacation on GST on a small number of items. They were talking about how they were so frustrated that the NDP-Liberals think they can buy people's votes by giving a small amount of their money back just in time for Christmas. It was really interesting, what one particular woman said very clearly. I went over and afterwards said, “I am the member of Parliament; it is great to meet you.” The woman had said, “If they really wanted to make a difference, they would axe the carbon tax. That has a bigger impact on my life.”
This is one of the pieces. We are not going to take any lessons from that member or from them on what they think affordability is for Canadians because Canadians in my riding, and from coast to coast to coast, see the impact of the carbon tax on their heating bill. They see the impact of the carbon tax every time they fill up their vehicle with gasoline and every time they get their gas bill. I am sorry, but a small amount of money sprinkled in a very abstract, obscure way for two months is not going to provide the help Canadians who are struggling to put food on their table need. Like I said, one in five children is living in poverty in Canada and that is due to the NDP-Liberal mismanagement of the economy.