Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his insightful and erudite intervention.
The fact is that the previous government, the Progressive Conservative government, reduced the deficit as a percentage of GDP from 9% when it took office to a little over 5% when it left office. The PC government of Brian Mulroney inherited a $38 billion deficit in 1984. The Liberals know a lot about deficit and debt because they built debts and deficits from the late sixties and the seventies.
The types of visionary policies that were implemented by the previous government resulted in this government's ability to reduce the deficit. Many members opposite are the same members who railed against the GST and against free trade. They then embraced those policies because they recognized that those policies would make a difference and that those were policies Canada needed at a very important time. Once they were elected they recognized those were the right policies.
Back in 1974 Trudeau threatened and scare mongered Canadians by saying that wage and price controls would be a bad thing. After the election he implemented Bob Stanfield's idea of wage and price controls. Oil was 18 cents a gallon.
Some parties are talking about corporate reimaging and new names. The Liberal Party of Canada should be called the flip-flop party of Canada because that party will stand for anything to get elected and, once elected, stand on any Canadian to implement its agenda of high taxes and cuts to areas that are important to Canadians like health care.