Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Vancouver Quadra for giving me this opportunity to have a short discussion at least on the Liberal economic policy as we know it. It is important that all Canadians fully understand what it is that the Liberals would do had they been given an opportunity to do so.
Let us go back just a few short months ago when the Liberals were crying out for more money, billions of dollars, to be infused into the Canadian economy. So much so that at the time they tried to form an unholy coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois in an attempt to wrest control of government away from a duly elected, democratically elected government, this Conservative government. Luckily, sanity prevailed, due in large part, I believe, to the visceral outrage of Canadians from coast to coast to coast against the concept of such a coalition.
Once things calmed down, our government brought down a budget on January 27 recognizing the worldwide global deterioration of the economy. We brought in a stimulus package with that budget which on a percentage basis to the GDP was probably larger than any other country in the industrialized world.
What was the reaction of the Liberal Party at that time? The Liberals said it was not enough. They said we must do more and pump more money into the economy.
As a result of the stimulus package, we are going to be experiencing a short-term deficit. But the Liberal solution was to make the deficit larger because the Liberals were criticizing us for not going far enough.
Now fast forward to today. What is the position of the Liberal Party? The Liberals actually have the audacity to criticize our government for having a deficit, when in fact they would have had a much larger deficit. They criticize us for creating the deficit, when in fact they were advocating a deficit.
What is the reaction of the Liberal leader? What is the position of the Liberal leader in dealing with the deficit? He said, and these are his words not mine, “We must raise taxes”. Yes, that is right, incredible as it sounds, the Liberal leader is saying that we must raise taxes to pay off the deficit.
This should not surprise anyone who has followed the career of the Liberal leader because he has a history of favouring higher taxes. Only a few short years ago he characterized himself as being a “tax and spend Liberal”, his words not mine.
Also, he has advocated, as has the rest of his party, that they bring forward a carbon tax. That was the previous Liberal leader's pet project in the last election. He was the father of the doomed federal carbon tax that the Liberals were projecting.
As well, the Liberal leader and the rest of his party criticized us for lowering the GST from 7% to 5%. The Liberal leader has constantly advocated raising taxes, and now he must answer the basic questions that all Canadians have: What taxes would he raise? How much would he raise taxes? Who would pay for these taxes?
The Liberal leader and the Liberal Party are absolutely giddy in anticipation these days of the possibility of an election. I can guarantee one thing: when the election does come, there will be a very basic and fundamental question that all Canadians will be asking, which party and which leader best protects the Canadian taxpayer? Will it be the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Harper, who has obviously always lowered taxes, or the Liberal Party and the Liberal leader who advocate raising taxes?
That is the debate I want to have.