Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would like to congratulate my colleague on his speech. It was far more detailed and more balanced than the one we heard a few minutes ago from the representative of the Reform Party, which expressed almost universal radicalism. In fact, they engage in radicalism on the constitutional level, by attempting to provoke all regions of the country.
I feel obliged to remind them that all of us here are representatives of different regions of the country, co-owners of all that we have. With all that we have at stake, we are going to proceed cautiously.
It is exactly the same thing on the economic level, totally unacceptable radicalism. There is absolutely no compassion for the most disadvantaged. Our colleague has just referred to the great difficulties now faced by the near-majority of Canadian families, whose children go to school without breakfast. My colleague is absolutely right.
One of the things the present government voted against was adoption of the GST legislation. The ultimate purpose of the GST—and I take advantage of the occasion to ask the question of my colleague—was to arrive at an effective fiscal reform as far as income and other taxes are concerned. Such was the purpose of the GST.
He is right as well in his reference to the ruse of this government in using the battle against the deficit to its advantage, when we know very well it was the result of free trade and the revenues from the GST. As well, they are forgetting that, over the same ten year period, 1974 to 1984, they increased the national debt tenfold, while we doubled it during our time in office, because our structural measures such as free trade and the GST had not yet been adopted.
I am therefore pleased to congratulate my colleague and I would like to hear what he has to say on these questions.