Madam Chairman, the minister set the tone. When he made his introductory speech, he opened up the debate about the budget. He bragged about all the accomplishments in the budget. I have the right to respond to his bragging.
It is very clear the hon. member does not understand that the people of Canada are very unhappy about having voted for a party which said it would get rid of the GST, that it would respect universality, that it would not cut medicare. There were all kinds of promises of this sort.
When we knocked on doors these issues were brought up all the time. I felt very uncomfortable when I was confronted by constituents who said: "I am not going to vote for you. I am going to vote for the people who promised to get rid of the GST, preserve universality of access, will not cut transfers to the provinces".
Is that something we should take sitting down without reacting? The issue is credibility. What kind of credibility will the government have in the future?
There is constant reference to the fact that the red book promises are being fulfilled. Well, we have heard enough about the GST. It is time to pull out the promise that there would be no end to the concept of universality. Under discussion today is the government's budget, not what the Reform Party would have done.
What is relevant is the fact that we went to the voters and said: "We cannot act irresponsibly and promise the elimination of the deficit. We cannot act irresponsibly and say that the country's financial crisis is likely to be eliminated simply by economic growth" as was promised. Credibility is the issue. The government's broken promises are the issue. We are talking about the budget that delivers the core of the Liberal program for government in the next two years.