And he is a good Liberal at that, I say to the member.
The reality is that even the members would have to look at it and say that Ontario is not an island unto itself. It relies on the policies of the federal government. Indeed it relies on international policies and international relations.
The province of Ontario, were it a sovereign country, which I do not advocate, would be the ninth or tenth largest economy in the world. It is quite remarkable. It was also strong in the 1980s when I had the pleasure to serve under David Peterson, who balanced the budget I would add. It was the first time in 40 years that any provincial government eliminated the deficit and balanced the budget. That was the legacy of David Peterson.
Bob Rae took over and we all recall why. We can all recall the battles around national unity and how David Peterson stood strong and paid a horrendous political price because he stood up for Canada. I remember that day. I remember with pride being a member of that caucus and a member of that government. Tragically, I admit, it cost David Peterson the job as premier.
However, the economic realities were that we were booming under the David Peterson government. It was then that Bob Rae came to power and he did almost verbatim what the Conservatives did here in Ottawa. He intentionally ran $10 billion deficits, overdrafts each and every year. Remember what I said, a deficit is an overdraft. When government pays off its overdraft it piles it on to the mortgage which becomes the debt.
When we left office in 1990 in the province of Ontario the total debt for the province was $39 billion. In five years under the NDP, whose members stand here and talk with pride about their ability to govern, that debt in the greatest province in this country went from $39 billion to over $100 billion. It continues to grow because today the Mike Harris government is continuing to run a $6 billion deficit.
Why have they not cut? There is no question that they have cut dramatically and yet we hear members in the Reform Party saying how revenue has increased in the province of Ontario. Please help me with this. We have people lined up in emergency wards. Just read any newspaper. We have replaced the level of transfer payments to the provinces. Why were they cut in the first place?