Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the rather partisan remarks by my colleague for Mississauga West.
For at least 35 years now, I have been following budget presentations, and the Liberals have been in power a good 15 years of that time. I have never before seen a Liberal member rise and say that his Minister of Finance was totally wrong, that a mistake had been made. Definitely not.
From the first year the current Prime Minister was Minister of Finance, he got us into debt, debt that accumulated over 28 years. I do not understand the hon. member's thought process. How can 35 years worth of good result in something bad, like the current $583 billion accumulated debt.
But that is not really my main concern. The Minister of Finance brags about curbing his deficit. But on whose backs did he do that? There are 500,000 people living in poverty in Montreal. Just this morning, the headline in the paper read “Young mother of four has problem with leaky roof”.
How is this young woman with four children expected to set up a registered school savings plan for her children? They will probably die of hunger before they reach high school.