The government realized the infrastructure program was not good. It has now been extended supposedly because the municipalities have been asking for it, but that was not stated in the budget.
Unbelievably we reduced tobacco taxes that first year. Here we are with our backs to the wall, in debt up to our eyeballs and we gave away what was admitted at the time to be about $300 million. The government did not understand the seriousness of the problem. We gave away $300 million. That does not even begin to touch the health costs implicit in encouraging people to start smoking again by reducing the taxes.
However it was not $300 million. It cost the Canadian taxpayers $850 million in an attempt to drive the bad guys away. "We are only going to do this until the bad guys disappear, then we are going to put the tax back". The Liberals were dreaming in technicolour at a time when they should not have been dreaming, they should have been facing reality.
The last thing we were involved in thanks to this government was the Pearson mess. We are still debating whether it is a Liberal scandal or a Tory scandal. While we are doing that the airport is deteriorating. The jobs that could have been created there have not been created. In the long term it will cost jobs across Canada. That is all because of the government failing to face reality and take action.
The other comment I wanted to address at the beginning was: "We did not do this; we just took over. It was the Conservatives that started all this. They did not address the deficit". The present government was in opposition. I cannot recall a great deal of emphasis from them in those years to cut spending. As a matter of fact, I detected the exact opposite. Whenever the Conservative government, realizing the magnitude of the problem, tried to do something about it like revising the UI program, the howls of indignation from the Liberals were unbelievable.
It is a little hypocritical to sit over there and say: "It is not us. We did not cause the deficit." They sure did not help by supporting the cuts the Tories were trying to make. Not to mention the government was in place when we started this slide down the debt hole. When the Liberals were defeated in 1984 the debt at that point was just under $200 billion and all Conservative efforts to reduce it failed miserably because they were not getting the support they needed from the opposition.
Now we come to the budget. A year ago it was: "Don't worry, be happy". Now Canadians are being told: "It is a serious situation. It is life threatening. We have to do something about it. We have to cut spending". They blew it big time. The one thing the Liberals had to do was show leadership by example. They had to address our gold plated MP pension plan and they did not do it. They blew big time any credibility they had with the Canadian people in that budget.
It is interesting the MP pension cuts were not in the budget. I am sure the finance minister looked at that program and said: "Forget it. It would be a disaster in my budget".