Mr. Speaker, I found the speech of the hon. member for Sherbrooke extremely interesting, especially considering the member ran for the leadership of a party which took the hole the prior Liberal government dug $170 billion deep and proceeded to dig it even deeper to the tune of $420 billion.
I find it interesting how he would, in his first opportunity, attack a Liberal budget. In opposition people tend to attack government budgets. We did the same thing. There are some things about this budget that are worth while commenting on, such as the $9 billion in cuts the government has proposed which the opposition has been urging for over two years. It is soft, it is too slow, but that is another story.
I have three specific questions for the hon. member for Sherbrooke. When he was part of the Conservative government why did it or could it not reduce the deficit? What does he think currently is the biggest problem in this country, the debt, the interest costs to service the debt or the deficit? Does he agree or disagree with the Reform Party solution of a zero deficit in three years, working toward a balanced budget and protecting the taxpayers from increases by government with a taxpayers' protection act?