Mr. Speaker, first of all, I appreciate the summary of the financial history of Canada. However, I think the hon. member went back too far. Going back to 1984 would have been sufficient. We would have heard of a former Prime Minister, namely Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who led a Liberal government for twenty years or so. We are too young to go back as far as the member did.
In 1984, the Canadian debt—and that was before the Conservatives took office—was $187 billion. The Liberals are ones who had been in power. They were originally responsible for the Canadian debt.
When the Liberals took over from the Conservatives in 1993, the debt was $500 billion. Today, the accumulated debt has reached $585 billion. This means that, between 1993 and 1997, the Liberal government has let the debt grow, just from accrued interests of course, because it is not doing anything any more. If the debt continues to grow when there is no spending, it has to be from accrued interests.
I would like the hon. member to comment on this. When the Liberal Party was in the opposition, it voted against the GST and free trade. If it had not made cuts in transfer payments to the provinces and in employment insurance, if it had acted on the auditor general's recommendations, I think it would have achieved a zero deficit just the same.