Mr. Speaker, we have a saying in Newfoundland. When someone is awfully bold we say they have more nerve than a toothache and a vicious one at that.
Here is the member asking me why we did not tell Canadians about the fiscal situation of Canada. The hon. member's leader made a notable contribution to the leaders' debate during the last election and the leader of the Reform Party will remember this. He kept asking the then Prime Minister what the deficit was and what the deficit would be. Up to that point we were all told the deficit this year would be about $33 billion. It turned out after we came to office that the deficit was $46 billion, $13 billion higher than the government had admitted.
Having the member ask me why we did not know this is amusing, given that the member who just asked the question spent his first four or five years in this place sitting on the government benches, the Tory party benches.
Why the member would now ask me what he was doing jumping up and down voting yes every time the government he supported proposed a motion, I do not know. I do not know what he was doing and I do not know what questions he asked in his caucus.
What I do know is that he was a loyal follower, notable for his capacity to get up and bow yes whenever Mr. Mulroney asked his permission to spend more money. It takes a special kind of nerve, like an open, raw wound, for this member to stand here now and complain. This member ought to be put on the bow of a boat out at 200 miles because he bellows so loud and makes so little sense that he would scare away all foreign fishing vessels.