Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to respond to my hon. colleague's question. I want to set the record straight on a couple of issues as well. Let us think this through.
In 1987 the Reform Party was formed. Its members would have us believe that they wanted to get our fiscal house in order because they were worried about the direction in which the country was going. There is a little bit of history. As a younger person I find it very uncomfortable lecturing some of the more senior members in that regard.
In 1984 the deficit was approximately $40 billion. In 1987 the deficit was around $17 billion or $21 billion. The government was headed in a much more prudent fiscal direction in that regard. That was the Progressive Conservative government of the day. For Reform members to say that they became a party because they were concerned about the fiscal element within this country is a faux pas. I am very sad to say that.
When Reform decided to become a party it was headed in a positive direction. Instead of encouraging the government and jumping on side to make investments, Reform decided to have a party to split the right. Now Reform is saying perhaps it was not a good thing to do and we should all cuddle up and try it all over again.
I want to talk about very serious issues. The partisanship is not important. What is important is we have a $600 billion national debt. We have the capacity to show the Canadian taxpayer that we are serious in addressing it and that we want to pay down the debt with very measurable targets.
That is the commitment Canadians want to hear, not the partisan rhetoric. They want to hear that we want to pay down the national debt in a very real way in terms of our debt to GDP ratio and in a very real way as compared to EU nations. That is what we want to do. We want to make that commitment.