Madam Speaker, I listened to my friend's remarks with interest. I wonder if he shared the same observation that I made when I was looking through the transfer payments that were made to the province of Saskatchewan over the years. My friend will know that Saskatchewan in some years has been a have province and in other years it has been a have not province. Did he notice the correlation between which political party was in office during the have years and which political party was in office during the have not years?
If my friend did not read the reports, it is interesting to notice that subsequent years of Liberal and Conservative governments inevitably resulted in the province becoming heavily indebted and therefore qualifying for equalization payments. Then the CCF or the NDP would be elected and over two or three years balance the books and get into a situation where there was no deficit and therefore lost the status of a have not province.
There is a curious relationship between political parties and being in and out of debt. Did my friend notice that when he was looking at these statistics?