Madam Speaker, I would urge the hon. member for Markham to speak with his seatmate from Chicoutimi about the legacy of free trade, GST and indeed regulation.
The fact is that the previous Conservative government has nothing to apologize for to Canada regarding those policies. Those were the policies that actually made it easy for the member's government to coast. I cannot be absolutely certain of this, but I would bet that the hon. member for Markham voted for those policies in 1988. As a private sector economist, he would have been hard pressed not to support the vision articulated by that government in that free trade election. During that period of time, when that government was fighting the vociferous opposition and the partisan barbs of the Liberal opposition, it forged ahead and continued to carve the types of policies that have ensured that Canadians have been a full partner in the prosperity that the world enjoyed in the 1990s.
The member mentioned the $38 billion deficit that the Mulroney government inherited in 1984. I am glad he did. He may be familiar with the concept of GDP, gross domestic product, as a former economist, but as a Liberal politician he has probably forgotten these concepts quite quickly. The fact is that in 1984 that deficit represented 9% of Canada's GDP. That deficit was reduced to 5% of Canada's GDP by the time that government left office.
The fact is that I have heard the member's seatmate from Chicoutimi standing in the House of Commons boasting about the accomplishment of the government in reducing Canada's deficit as a per cent of GDP by half. I would urge the member to listen to what was at least the wisdom of the member for Chicoutimi--Le Fjord on that issue. I think that the member for Chicoutimi--Le Fjord should pull the member for Markham aside and brief him about the accomplishments of the previous government, those accomplishments that the member for Markham wrote so glowingly about as a private sector economist for the Royal Bank of Canada.
I would also go further and ask the hon. member for Markham not only to revisit the history of the previous government, but to spend some time studying those policies so that his government might become a little more adept at taking some political risks and doing the right thing for Canadians as opposed to focusing on the short term, poll driven, focus group economics that is going to drive Canadians and Canada into the ground.