Mr. Speaker, I listened quite intently to the hon. member's comments and they are profoundly flawed in much of what she said. She referred to two areas. One relates to the economic performance of the government and the other relates to the defence performance of the government. I am going to address them separately for her edification.
The first one deals primarily with the cooperation in the United States. Marpac, CFB Esquimalt is in my riding of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca. I can say that the relationship we have with the United States is quite extraordinary. As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, I can say that our relationship with the United States is not only a priority but we are also very pleased with the level of cooperation between our countries through our army, air force and navy.
We share communications and work. We cooperate. Indeed we will work together in the future. The new international policy statement states very clearly that the United States is our signature partner. We recognized that in history. We recognize that today and we will recognize that in the future. A large chunk of the international policy statement deals with our cooperation with the United States to fulfill our needs in Canada for Canadians.
We recognize that we share North America. Our responsibility together is the defence of our North American community. We work very well and closely with the United States on all of those levels, whether it is the defence of the north, the defence of our sea ports, or border security. We have done a great deal.
The Deputy Prime Minister works very closely with her counterpart in the United States in dealing with the protection of Canada for Canadians and the protection of the United States for its citizens. We work together for the benefit of both countries. This is a relationship born in history and will continue into the future. We have supported that with $13 billion of cold hard money to provide more troops, and to provide more equipment and training for our men and women in uniform.
On the economic issue, one of the reasons I left my former party was the issue of economics. The line in the sand which exists for me personally and I think for most Canadians is that we will not get into deficit spending. My former party, the party of the member across the way, has been standing for deep cuts and spending. Those do not add up. This is played out south of the border where the President of the United States has adopted a plan of deep cuts and spending which has resulted in record deficits in the United States. That is something we cannot countenance in our country.
Surplus spending and balanced budgets are integral to provide for our social programs, defence forces and indeed to pay down the debt so we can save money on the interest payments. That provides Canada with a strong, stable economy so our private sector can work well.
In closing, I want to assure the hon. member, although she knows very well, that the government has put forth eight consecutive surplus budgets. We have also committed to ensuring that our private sector community can bid in a competitive way with U.S. companies for U.S. contracts, which they are free to do.