Mr. Speaker, on what is almost certainly the last day of this Parliament, I am proud to rise today as a New Democrat and proud of our record here in this place. As we move to the next election, Canadians can be proud that the NDP members of Parliament got something done, and proud that our leader, the member for Toronto--Danforth, is a leader who puts people first and a leader who got results.
This session saw New Democrats pass the first ever NDP budget. We took $4.6 billion that was destined to end up in the pockets of well-connected friends of Liberals as corporate tax cuts and we turned that money over to affordable housing, reducing tuition, the environment, and foreign aid.
We have been thrust into this election by a Liberal leader who refuses to compromise, so we head to the electorate confident that we did everything we could to get things done in this minority Parliament. We know that more could have been done if it were not for the scandal, the arrogance and the inflexibility of the Liberals and their Prime Minister.
We pay special tribute to the member for Ottawa Centre, who is retiring. He has been an inspiration to all of us.
We intend to return here with more New Democrats to go to bat for Canadians. They can count on that.