A government’s responsibility

From the Finance Minister’s news conference during yesterday’s lock-up, in response to questions about whether the budget had met the NDP’s demands.

The idea is not to craft a package that suits party A, party B, party C.  The idea is to craft a package that’s a good budget for Canadians, that Canadians can support and that we can legitimately put before Parliament and say this is a package, read it all, look at it in a balanced way that suits the needs of the country at this time ... the job of the government is not to appease opposition parties. The job is to analyse what they put forward, be respectful, try to make Parliament work.