Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for what I assume must have been his maiden speech because he certainly went on for a long time and said very little. We talk about debt to GDP ratio, but if we were to talk about substance to rhetoric ratios, he would certainly have a very low ratio in that case.
He speaks about the provincial situation in Ontario, about tax cuts in Ontario, about what he feels are clearly the fault of the provincial government and about the impact of Ontario policy on people in Ontario. What about the impact of federal government cuts across the board? What about the 35% decrease in CHST since 1993 and its impact on provinces like Nova Scotia? This is the same government.
He talks about cuts to health care. Three hospitals were virtually closed in my riding because of this federal government, a government of which he was a member. It is absolutely unconscionable for him to speak about what a provincial government is doing when they have not addressed the issue, when he was part of the party that made draconian cuts in transfers to the provinces, when they allowed the type of health care destruction that occurred in provinces across Canada.
The hon. member should realize that leadership is one thing that cannot be off loaded to the provinces. That is exactly what has been done. He cannot pass the buck in this House to what has been done in the provincial house in Queen's Park. The burden lies with the hon. member and with the members of his caucus who have allowed this to occur, who have allowed these cuts to occur and who have allowed ordinary Canadians to be hurt by these cuts. The fact is that with tax relief ordinary Canadians can make decisions for themselves that will be far better than the decisions made by the members opposite.