Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by reminding the member that some 11 months ago the Canadian people made a choice. The choice they made was to send the government in minority form into Parliament here in the House of Commons.
What is actually quite amazing is to hear the members opposite continue to refer to the government as apparently illegitimate and a government that is clinging to power, while their own leader seeks to undermine that power and steal it.
The reality is that the members opposite have lost sight of the fact that the Canadian people have spoken. They may wish to question the wisdom of Canadians in their choice but our job was to come here as a government in minority form and govern, which is precisely what we are doing.
The member opposite said that she was a former negotiator. As one former negotiator to another, she would understand that there is an obligation here in the House, in minority government form, to mediate through and find the middle ground and provide the kind of government Canadians are looking for.
We hear from the other side regularly about the fiscal performance of the government. Let us look at the case of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves and the wonderful new republican government of Ontario. We remember the republican government of Ontario: a $25 billion increase in the debt and a $6 billion hole that the people of Ontario are still digging themselves out of. There are many examples of republican governments here in Canada and in the United States.
My question for the member is simple. Where is the evidence in the past 25 years of the fiscal performance of the Progressive Conservative Party, the Reform Party, the Alliance Party, the new Conservative Party, the Reform Conservative Party or the not so progressive Conservative Party?