Mr. Speaker, I see the member for Kootenay East is doing serious reading. He started out with Maclean's , went to the Financial Post and then the Vancouver Sun . I am glad he stopped his reading list right then and there.
I think there are more serious ways of looking at what rating companies do. There is no doubt that everybody is concerned about it. The Minister of Finance expressed his own concern in answering questions in the House of Commons last week.
I am not going to downplay the concerns that we have about how the world sees us and the volatility of the money markets over the last 12 months dealing with issues such as the referendum, dealing with the national debt and the provincial debt. All these questions weigh heavily on the government. To belittle them would be self-denial.
The question becomes how we approach the country. Do we approach it as a sad sack? Do we approach it as if this is about to be the end? Or do we say to ourselves this is a strong country, we have a tremendous economy? The OECD says we will continue to lead the industrial world for the next two years in economic growth, that we have the fastest growth rate, around 4.5 per cent. This is strength. These are companies and individuals going out and doing something.
We have rates of expansion in our export markets which are second to none in the world. We have strength. What we should be doing as parliamentarians is adding to that strength and not exercising the negative.
Yes, the report from Moody's was a very negative report. That does not necessarily mean it is correct. It does not mean that we should all sort of give in and say this is a terrible country, why do families stay here, why are we bothering doing anything here. As parliamentarians our job is to say that this is a pretty good country. What we should be doing is building upon this base and not trying to destroy it.