As I write this your Conservative Government has just succeeded in defeating a motion by the Liberal Party which would have forced yet another election. Like you and most other Canadians, I cannot understand why Mr. Ignatieff brought the motion forward in the first place, but I think our Prime Minister came as close an anyone in explaining it when he said yesterday:  " The Leader of the Opposition is flailing around trying to justify an election nobody wants for a reason nobody understands on a policy that nobody's heard of "

The opposition parties claim they want to make Parliament work.  So do I, but what are the facts?  At three years and eight months, our government is the longest-serving minority parliament in Canadian history.  It seems to me that could not have happened unless we were successful in working cooperatively with other parties and remained focused on the priorities of the Canadian people.

And what of those priorities?  We have met the challenge of the single worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression and according to all experts we are just now emerging stronger than any other G7 country.  We've reduced taxes for all Canadians by $3600 a year for the average family of four. Today Canadian taxpayers enjoy 20 more days when they do not pay any federal taxes than before were elected in 2006. Our Corporate and small business tax rates are lower than most of our largest trading partners.  We've signed new trading agreements around the world for agriculture and business.  We've invested billions in municipalities and created or protected some 225, 000 jobs for Canadian workers. We've increased employment insurance benefits for long-tenured workers who have lost jobs through no fault of their own.  We have made major investments to job sharing programs, skills upgrading and job retraining to help workers prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.  In terms of criminal justice, our focus is on the victims of crime and getting tough on criminals with mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes. We've given all provinces a fair shake on transfer payments and increased funding for health and post secondary education at guaranteed rates far above the rate of inflation.

And yet the opposition parties continue to claim they have no confidence in our government and given the right opportunity will defeat us and force a fourth election in just the past five years. Quite honestly, I am losing confidence in an opposition who have confused their duty to oppose the government with wanting to do nothing but defeat it. In just the past 12 months, we have been through an election where the Canadian people gave our government a strengthened mandate to continue focusing on their priorities.  In response, the opposition parties formed a coalition to overthrow the will of the people and have continually tried to engineer a defeat of our government and force an election.  No ideas, no policies, no suggestions; just threats and empty allegations claiming we're responsible for Parliament not working.

Well, the fact is, Parliament seems to be working well and it could be even better if the opposition would stop playing political games and get on with the work of the people.