Mr. Speaker, the people of Ontario have suffered throughout the nineties. They bore the full brunt of the recession and their troubles were compounded by an inexperienced, inept, high spending provincial government.
Do members know that the NDP government in Ontario continued to try to spend its way out of the recession two years longer than any other government? It doubled the provincial debt so that Ontarians now pay 20 cents of every tax dollar for interest. Now the NDP is trying to blame the federal government for its problems. We maintained the level of provincial transfers for our first two years in office. We have given all provincial governments ample notice about changes we intend to make.
Ontario needs a new government, a government which is caring and competent. Ontario cannot afford to try another inexperienced party. We cannot afford to stay with the NDP. We must have a Liberal government in Ontario after the upcoming election.