Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's intervention. I believe the hon. member was elected in 1988 during a campaign in which he railed against free trade. As a member of parliament he has subsequently railed against the GST. He has railed against the deregulation of financial services, transportation and energy. He has fought all those structural changes that were implemented by the previous government. He fought against every single one of those cornerstones of the new economy.
There was an interesting article in The Economist magazine's 1998 preview. It said that credit for the deficit reduction in Canada belongs to the structural changes made in the Canadian economy by the previous government. It listed free trade. It listed the GST. It listed deregulation of financial services, transportation and energy. I would like to know why the hon. member when he was in opposition fought against all those changes and why now as a Liberal government member he is taking credit for the results.
The Liberal members are the patron saints of hypocrisy if they believe they can sit in the House today and attack the Conservative record. Those Conservative changes have enabled the present government to eliminate the deficit with the help of Canadians who have seen their taxes rise and their services slashed.