Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the member opposite. He suggested that the economic prosperity Canada was enjoying today was the result of Tory policies of the previous government.
Obviously the first question he might want to ask himself is why after the last election the Tory party returned as the fifth party in the House. If the viewers could see the full Chamber they would see the small section the Tories occupy.
More important, the member should want to ask some very specific questions. He expressed frustration in his speech about the consultative process. Maybe he would want to ask why the former Tory government had no consultative process when it came to formulating its budget. It never went out to consult with Canadians. The finance committee, under the Tory regime, never has a prebudget consultation. It was simply all done by Michael Wilson in some backroom when he came up with his budget.
How did it help Canada reach economic prosperity? When the Tory government took over there was about a $28 billion deficit, but when it left it was at $42 billion. It had increased by this massive amount.
The Tories are trying to say that we should look at them as being the genesis of our economic prosperity. The Liberal government has been in power for four years and the deficit disappeared. They were in power for nine years and it went from $28 billion to $42 billion.
The member talked about the fact that the debt to GDP was far too high, and it is. What he failed to point out was that when the Conservative Party took over it was in the 50% range and when it left it was over 70%. Again I have to ask the hon. member if that is an example of the type of Tory management which led to the great prosperity we see today.
They have talked about EI premiums. When the Tories were in power the UI premiums went up by over $1. When we came to power they were scheduled to go to $3.30. In reality today they are down to $2.70. Is this another example of how the Tory policy has led to the economic prosperity of today?
The member also talked about unemployment, a significant problem in Canada. It is a challenge for all of us to try to address. Was the fact that the unemployment rate had increased to 11.3% when the Tories left office and is now down to 9% today under a Liberal regime an example of their economic policies that have led to the prosperity we enjoy today?