Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Calgary Centre for the question and for the opportunity to set the record straight, as the budget offers us an opportunity to put things in perspective.
He asked me, with respect to the Conservative government, what were the things it did or did not accomplish. Let me point them out in real, objective terms.
When we became the Government of Canada in 1984 program expenditure was rising at an annual rate of over 13 per cent. We brought that down to below or around 4 per cent. When we took over government in 1984 the annual deficit relative to GDP was in excess of 8 per cent. We brought that down to somewhere in the area of 5 per cent or 6 per cent.
I will go further because I know he will be interested in the facts and less in the rhetoric. A document was put out by this government, "Agenda, Jobs and Growth: Creating a Healthy Fiscal Climate". I am sure people can write to the Department of Finance to obtain a copy.
This Liberal document of October last has at page 8 a very interesting graph on the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP. If we watch the line very closely, as of 1984 when we became the government the line started to go down dramatically. That reflects the real efforts we brought forward as opposed to the inflated demagogy we have heard from time to time. We produced a surplus on the operating budget of the government
of $13 billion over the nine years we were the Government of Canada.
Does that mean everything we did was right or perfect? Obviously the answer is no. Those are the facts as opposed to the fiction proposed by others.