Madam Speaker, I seem to have struck a chord.
In any case, the economic policies and the mess the government of Brian Mulroney inherited dictated that we had to reduce by 15% per year program spending growth. We reduced it to zero by the time we left office. Beyond that we were able to not only reduce program spending, which was out of control at that time, but we were also able to reduce the deficit as a percentage of GDP.
We were also able to implement policies which have been absolutely essential in reducing the deficit, including the GST, which is a consumption tax that is a heck of a lot better than the manufacturers' sales tax which it replaced.
Then we implemented the free trade agreement.
We were the party that supported free trade before the members on the government side had ever supported it. Those are the types of difficult innovative policy decisions which have provided to Canadians today a fiscal dividend. The fact is those were the right policies then and are the right policies now.