Mr. Speaker, I made some notes during the hon. member's question. I am glad he asked me to explain why personal disposable income has dropped in Canada. Despite his assertions to the contrary, Canadians pay more taxes now than they did in 1993. They pay a higher percentage individually of their paycheques to taxes. Due to the fact that the government has not even addressed the issue of bracket creep, two million low income Canadians are paying taxes now that would not have been paying taxes otherwise.
I am glad the member mentioned the unemployment rate. He is quite right that recently the unemployment rate has decreased. Anyone who knows anything about economics recognizes that it takes approximately five years at a minimum for economic policies to have the impact of reducing unemployment. He is quite right in acknowledging that the policies of the previous government were successful after having been implemented and with the passage of time in achieving a declining unemployment rate. Policies like free trade are largely responsible for the type of economic growth enjoyed by Canada at this juncture.
I do not want to remind the hon. member again where his party stood on issues like free trade and the GST, but they stood against the types of policies that have resulted in the growth they are now boasting about.