Madam Speaker, I realize the member for Leeds--Grenville is a new member of Parliament and therefore probably does not have a very good memory of the last Conservative government we had in this country but I do.
Perhaps he does not remember that the last Conservative prime minister to run for election announced the election by saying that unemployment in this country would be double digits for at least the coming decade. It did not take a Liberal government long to get unemployment well below that level.
The member talked about pensions. It was this government that put the CPP on solid, sustainable footing so that it would be there for our seniors. A Conservative government ducked that issue for the five years I was in Parliament and for the four years before that when it was in office.
The member for Leeds--Grenville also talked about the billion dollar boondoggle. The party opposite received great mileage out of that issue in the House for a long time but has forgotten to tell people that when the Auditor General finished her work the simple fact was that $55,000, had not been misspent but simply had not been properly recorded.
I also want to point out that Parliament has a role in holding the government accountable. The details of how the budget money is going to get spent are in the estimates. What was the Conservative Party doing the week that committees were considering the estimates, the detailed spending and holding the government accountable? That party was boycotting committee hearings.