Mr. Speaker, the question the hon. member asks is a legitimate one in an age when such significant cuts have been made. Certainly some of them have fallen on the disadvantaged in society.
He asks how we can call ourselves Liberals and how we can call ourselves caring. Unfortunately the only answer I can give him is that oftentimes the decisions we have made represent the lesser of various evils. If we had not made decisions to get the deficit down, the country would have been in virtual ruin and somebody else would have come in and made those decisions for us. The poor and the disadvantaged would have paid the highest price from rising interest rates and a country in economic ruin.
Certainly the economic system does not work well for all Canadians. There are far too many Canadians who are not participating in the recovery, far too many Canadians who do not have jobs and far too many Canadians who are suffering from the restructuring. When we take into account all the decisions the government has made and look at them as a whole package, I am not sure any other decision maker, whether the Tories or any other hypothetical government, could have done a better job on the whole.
We know many people are hurting. All I can say to Canadians is that the worst is behind us. We are now enjoying the benefits of lower interest rates. The federal government is the major borrower in the country and is enjoying the benefits of lower interest rates in the cost of borrowing. We should now push the federal government to use some of those savings to try to correct the imbalances and unfairness in the economy over the last few years.