Mr. Speaker, I too was quite impressed by the remarks of the hon. member for Sherbrooke and leader of the Conservative Party, who said that, with the new pension plan, the level of taxation will rise by $11 billion over six years. It is strange to hear this expression of concern coming from the Conservatives. He spoke of the poor and the young and went so far as to suggest there is need to control and limit government spending.
Has he forgotten that, while the Conservatives were in office, Canada's public debt doubled from $250 billion to $500 billion? Does he not think that doubling the Canadian government's debt load and imposing a mismanaged GST on the Canadian economy, both actions having been taken by the Conservatives while in power, helped create many problems, including the pension problem? In other words, does he not think that increasing the Canadian government's debt load while they were in power added to the pension problem in Canada?