Mr. Speaker, I am very curious to know what kind of discombobulated crystal ball my friend had that he looks into and is able to predict the future four or five years down the road.
I expect he predicted the decline of the Mexican peso. I suspect four years ago he predicted an anticipation of feared inflation in the United States which would raise interest rates.
I expect he must know the answer to when the budget will be balanced ultimately. The minister has taken a position, right or wrong, that he wanted to do it in two-year leaps, in two-year packages, for the simple reason that he had a better chance of predicting what was going to happen in that time.
As we all know, they did not all pan out the way they had been originally predicted. By what curious vision does my hon. friend express the question or bring the challenge to the government that somehow we should be able to say in x number of months or x number of years the budget will be ultimately balanced? My friend may be surprised that it may end up being balanced before both he and I expect.
I would like to know how he projects into the future in the way he seems to be doing.