The Budget  Mr. Speaker, two things are flying all over the place. First of all is the misunderstanding, or pretense of misunderstanding, of the definition of the middle class by the Liberal government members throughout their campaign; and they still seem to be on the campaign trail. Second

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, basically, the Liberals were very successful with their rhetoric. They put in big words. They talked about small families. They talked about taking away from the rich. They talked about all kinds of things. They are taking away more from Canadian families than they a

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Calgary Shepard. We have now been exposed to the finance minister's first budget. It contains no surprises. We all knew that the budget would not balance itself. We all knew

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, we have been hearing members on the government side say they want to protect freedom of religion, that they want to be on top of things, and all of that kind of stuff, but it seems like there is a double standard. They want to protect and continue working on religi

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague and thank her for outlining Dr. Bennett's role in all areas, including the very significant list of achievements. If the government intends to do more to promote religious freedom and the government has a plan to do so, that would mean

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, basically, we are in a world where we all know that religious freedoms are the first to be targeted among other freedoms, all of which have been taken away from people. It is very important that Canada, with its Canadian demographic mix and the multicultural societ

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, what he said at the end of his question is right, that we are aiming for a bigger role for Canada. That role could definitely be better played if we had an Office of Religious Freedom. Specifically, religious freedom is very fundamental. As I said, I am from an ar

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, this is not a partisan issue. The members opposite are trying to suggest that we have done this for political reasons somehow and that there is no agreement. We disagree that we shut down democracy in the past; rather, we played democracy to

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, before I begin, I would like to take the time to thank Canada's ambassador for religious freedom, Dr. Andrew Bennett, for his three years of devoted service, not just to Canada but to those around the world. He has worked tirelessly to promote Canadian values and t

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I thought that was more of a speech than a question. I just want to say one thing. We are discussing financial figures and indices here. We are discussing true figures of economic factors. This is not about the political position that this or that party takes. This

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. I enjoy having him on the finance committee. All I can say is that 11 million Canadians have contributed to TFSAs. I am not sure about the 7% figure for those who maximize to the $10,000 limit. In fact, if those figures are correct, it means we

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, when the Liberals originally introduced this new system of tax breaks, they promised it would be revenue neutral. Shortly after taking office, however, they abandoned this promise. It is projected by the parliamentary budget officer that Bill C-2's changes will cost

Finance  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister once stated that the budget will balance itself. Well, he was wrong about that. After inheriting a budget surplus of $1 billion from the Conservative government and after he promised a $10 billion deficit, his self-balancing budget policy is proj

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the member opposite. We have been hearing about the middle class all along, and my understanding is that 75% of Canadians are middle class. However, what we heard just now is that only 30% of Canadians will benefit from this new tax system. What

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, a secret ballot is an act of democracy, and by removing it, we are giving a yield of comfort to union leaders, not to workers. Does the member agree that Bill C-4 is the repealing of an act of transparency and accountability that we provided and introduced in the pr