Mr. Speaker, I am often struck by the pessimism that exists on the other side when we as a country are enjoying an excellent standard of living. There are areas which need improvement. I mentioned, for example, the issue of youth unemployment. That is a concern for many Canadians from coast to coast. I am surprised the hon. member does not recognize the government has governed well.
We can look to the headway we made on the deficit. It was $42 billion when we took power. That was not long ago. It was back in 1993. When I was sitting where the hon. member is sitting now I remember how badly we felt as a nation. We were carrying a high deficit. Interest rates went through the roof. More important, we saw a truly demoralized nation, a nation which was running just to stand still. People's incomes were dropping. People had lost their hope to purchase a home. Bankruptcies were going through the roof. People's hopes were dim.
The government cannot take all the credit. Indeed Canadians rolled up their sleeves and said that we needed to tackle the deficit. Now they want to tackle the debt. We need to make strategic investments in areas that count like education and health.
During the election campaign the increase in cash flow of approximately $1.5 billion was welcomed by people from coast to coast to coast. They felt we were investing in the right things: health and education.
The hon. member mentioned something which struck me as being odd. He said that this is just money that goes to social spending and it has nothing to do with jobs. I submit to him that he is absolutely wrong. The investment we make in education is perhaps the number one way of ensuring that young people have the skills and the education required to get the new jobs that exist in the new economy.
It is the way in which we can respond to the changing dynamics of marketplace where, as members know, the old rules simply do not apply.
I think that is the big difference that exists from the member's attitude and my own. I truly believe that we can equip the people of Canada with the proper skills. I believe that this country has great potential for growth.
I believe there are signals given by the marketplace and given by people's attitude that tomorrow can be better than today provided we pool our common resources, provided we find the inner strength to look to the 21st century with the type of optimism that we have the right to.
If anybody is asked, any economist throughout the world, what would be the perfect conditions for economic growth in an industrialized society, what they will say is that human resources need to be invested in as we have done. The burden of deficits needs to be eliminated. Interest rates need to be low. Inflation needs to be low. These are the fundamentals that generate economic growth.
I simply do not understand why the hon. member cannot take pride in the fact that Canadians from coast to coast have sacrificed to reach these objectives, that Canadians from coast to coast have said to the Government of Canada defeat the deficit. We will sacrifice ourselves for whom? For our children, whether they come from Quebec, British Columbia, Ontario or anywhere else in this country.
The hon. member gets up in his seat and somehow tells the people who are watching this debate that things in Canada are terrible, that it does not matter that because of low interest rates we have seen immense growth in the small business sector, that it does not matter that over a million jobs have been created, that it does not matter that because of the almost elimination of our deficit that we are able now to invest in the social and economic needs of Canadians, particularly health care and education, that does not really matter, those are not achievements, the fact that the unemployment rate is below double digit. When former Conservative governments were saying that it would take until the year 2000, that is not worth celebrating.
To diminish the efforts of Canada, that is what the hon. member is saying. All the work that the Canadian people have participated diligently in, you are saying that is worth nothing. I say to you that you are wrong and we—