Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague from Broadview—Greenwood who has been a seatmate of mine for 11 years now. Since we entered this debate some 11 years ago a lot of changes have occurred.
I know that the member for Calgary Southeast is quite new to this place, so he may have forgotten who he used to vote for before the Reform Party came along. I am sure he would like to tell us sometime who he used to vote for before he decided to create his own party. Now he is going to try to create another one because he is not happy with the one he has.
I am a little disturbed that he cannot seem to get his parties right, but he does know that the party he voted for when I was in opposition with my colleagues here on that side was a government that racked up a huge deficit.
When we first got to this place some 11 years ago, as the member for Broadview—Greenwood said, Canadians had absolutely no hope. Everywhere I went in Kenora—Rainy River, one of the largest rural ridings in Canada, probably one of the largest pieces of geography for one member to represent in all of North America, everyone was very down and out and very depressed about where we were going as a country. I can understand why because there were no choices, no options.
Last year was the first time in my voting life that I voted for a government that had a balanced budget. Imagine that. I am not exactly a young man, but the fact remains that I have never voted for a government that had a balanced budget.
What did the pundits say last year? Not much. They had a real tough time saying congratulations to the Canadian government for starting to get its fiscal house in order and starting to show some understanding of how the country should be run.
This year we had a second balanced budget. Of course the right wing pundits were out there saying “That is not good enough. You have got two balanced budgets for the first time in 50 years, but you have got to start getting your act together. The country is going to fall apart because you did not cut enough, you did not do enough in debt reduction and you are starting to spend money”.
Here are the criticisms that I have heard so far about the budget. This is a very telling tale. The criticism of this budget is that we did not spend enough on health care, we did not cut taxes enough and we did not reduce the debt enough. That is the kind of criticism that I think is exceptionally well placed because when I first got here these debates did not occur. We were so confused as a country, wondering whether we were ever going to get out of the quagmire we were in, that we could not even criticize how much debt we paid down or how big a tax cut we would have. We were wondering whether we were going to be a third world country soon because of what we were doing.
Now we are at the point where we can see some hope. Canadians are showing that. We are having debates now, serious debates about where we are going. The fact is that we have balanced budgets.
We now have a discussion about the fact that unemployment has gone from 11.4% to 7.8%. When we first got here, if unemployment had been at 7.8%, we would have been dancing in the streets. Now we are being criticized that that is not good enough because the Americans have 4.5% unemployment.
I think that is a great debate because my riding is a big rural riding. I wish my friend from Prince George—Bulkley Valley was here because, quite frankly, I am quite concerned about this whole debate of tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts over there from rural members of the Reform.
One of the parts that interests me about the budget is the flexibility to build a nation. Where I come from building a nation means building infrastructure. Without government there would be no infrastructure. We can bet in Kenora—Rainy River, where three-quarters of my riding has absolutely no roads, no infrastructure at all, that that is a great potential for the future of our young generation. If we keep talking only about how much tax we have, are we ever going to get to building a nation? That is what I want to do in rural parts of Canada.
I would like to spend billions of dollars on a national highway program, a national infrastructure program part two, so that we can start putting money where it really belongs so our kids will have a future.
If I had my way I would rather pay the debt down than make tax cuts because I have no sense of urgency to help Conrad Black who is one of the people responsible for the big taxes and the big debt we have in this country. It was his newspapers that were all supporting of Mulroney and his crew when they kept racking it up and up.
I understand why members of the Reform Party jumped ship. I would have jumped ship too if I had to sit there every day and try to explain as a right winger why somebody who was supposedly right wing could not get their fiscal house in order.
The next issue really is the future. We have been through the past as opposition members. We have now seen our government, since 1993, go from a $42 billion deficit down to balanced budgets, with a commitment for two more. We are now entering into a very key time in our country's development.
As I said to the electorate of Kenora—Rainy River in 1993 when I ran for the second time, I see this as a ten year program. It is going to take us one term to clean up the mess. It is going to take us another term to start to build a nation. We are now doing that. We are basically going on our seventh year. I think it is important now that the debate start to get away from the nonsense of whether there is a little scandal here in the shower or whether there is APEC or whether there is this or that. I think we need to start talking about where we want this country to go.
Let me give members an example of what I mean. One of the issues that I have discussed with the Minister of Health is the issue of rural health. Some people in this place talk about lineups. Some people talk about emergency procedures. Where I come from we have neither. We do not have lineups because we do not have hospitals. We do not have emergency procedures because we do not have doctors. This is not about rich and poor, this is about rural and urban. We need a national rural health care plan in Canada. The $50 million that the minister put in was all based on rural caucus asking this government to start recognizing the needs of rural Canada and ways that we could treat rural Canada differently because of the geography that we live in.
I was quite amazed that my colleague from Prince George—Peace River would even suggest that his main priority as a rural Canadian is to have tax cuts. I was in his riding two years ago. His infrastucture needs and his abilities to create an economy are the same as mine. He is a long way from getting where he wants to go.
Let us start talking about hope. Hope is the ability of governments to have flexibility. It is the ability of governments to decide what their priorities are.
We know where the Reform Party is at. It is at the point where it says it needs to recreate itself because it is not getting to where Canadians want it to be as a good alterative because it does not reflect the values of Canadians. Perhaps Reform members should think twice about why there are certain little areas that they are plugging into and start thinking about the huge picture, the vision of the nation as a whole. Then they would become a good alternative to this government if it got off track. But so far it has been on track.