Mr. Speaker, that is not what the Royal Bank used to say through the voice of its chief economist. He had a much clearer view of reality at that time and was quite prepared to acknowledge two things. First is that the Progressive Conservative government, when it came to office, came to office facing a $38 billion deficit that had been left by Liberal governments before. Second and far more important is the transforming impact upon the country and its prospects of the economic initiatives that were taken by the government during the 1980s and the early 1990s.
The real tragedy here is not to debate the merits of free trade or the merits of the GST, all of which have been debated. The real focus here is that it was a government that was prepared to act to make Canada a leader in the world. It perhaps took too many initiatives. It certainly paid a high political price for those initiatives but at least it acted.
We have seen, sitting here in the most fortunate country in the world, a government now through three terms. When I asked the Prime Minister in debate during the election campaign could he name one single major accomplishment of his time in office, he could not name one, nor could the Minister of Finance. As I said in my remarks, there has not been a significant economic initiative taken by the government since NAFTA and NAFTA was closing up the business of the government that went before it.
What we need if we are going to maintain our capacity as a leader among nations is a government that is as imaginative as its people are. We need a government that is prepared to take the kinds of long term risks to build for the future and make Canada an economic leader in the future.
I am immensely proud to have been part of a government which was prepared to bring in the free trade agreement, which was prepared to face the hard realities of the GST.
Yes, we accepted the advice then of the chief economist of the Royal Bank of Canada. He had better advice then than he does now. It was good advice. It was good for the country. It has given us great opportunities which the Liberal government year after year has wasted. It has wasted and squandered them again in the budget that was brought down yesterday.
The budget could have followed the advice of the auditor general. It could have taken her direction as to where the waste was rampant and eliminated that waste. That would have given us the room for targeted corporate tax cuts. It would have brought growth to the country and given us the room for investment. It would not have been an insult to the men and women who serve in the armed forces.
There is so much that could have been done. There has been so much that could have been done over this last wasted decade, but the Liberal government sat, drifted and let the world pass us by. Now Canadians are paying the price.
Soon Canadians will have a choice. When they have that choice they will say that they have had enough of a government that wastes the potential of Canada and let us get back to building this country again.