… is that sometimes people hear you.
As to the government’s decision to back down on the vote subsidy and a government source’s claim that the government is not backing down because, indeed, the government never intended to make it a matter of confidence, here is the relevant portion of the Finance Minister’s scrum yesterday.
Reporter: Mr. Flaherty, you must know that the party financing cuts will hurt your opponents proportionately far more than they will your party. Are you prepared to take this, to take Canadians to a $300 million election on this issue?
Flaherty: Well, first of all, our party would have been entitled to $/10 million dollars which..
Reporter: But you know the – - you have raised more.
Flaherty: It is per vote, so we got more votes, so it hurts us the most. It is not that complicated actually. So you know, we are hurting ourselves the most, but as I said, we already have two other ways in which the tax system benefits political parties, at a cost of $40 to $50 million per year and this is a budget – I’m sorry, this is an economic statement, not a budget, it is not a budget. I was going to say it is a budget bill, it is not, but it is part of the government’s fiscal framework and so these are the bills that I will introduce on Monday as a matter of confidence.
