Mr. Speaker, I want to point out to the member that last week this House approved the appropriations of approximately $180 billion to be spent on programs across Canada. Tonight we are only talking about the $4.5 billion supplemental appropriations for public transit, access to post-secondary education, foreign aid and affordable housing.
The hon. member went on with what seemed to be a litany of problems. He seemed to be repeating everything that has been said over the last number of days, stating that there is a real problem with the economic management of this country. Let us look at every external indicator, and I am not talking one or two, I am talking about every one of them.
The employment growth is the highest in the G-7 with 280,000 new jobs created in the last 14 months. We have the fastest growth in the standard of living in the G-7. We have good GDP growth. We have low inflation rates which in turn lead to low interest rates. There has been an extreme reduction in the debt to GDP ratio. We have had eight surplus budgets, something which has not been seen in any other country. We have paid down $65 billion on the debt.
In any external indicator, this country ranks among the top. When the Conservative Party, the member's party, was in power we saw the exact opposite. The last year that the Conservative Party was in power the debt was $43 billion. They say interest rates were high. I say interest rates were high because the Conservatives were in power and lost control of the economic and monetary policies at their disposal.
After hearing the member talk about the fiscal mismanagement that he alleges, why is it that every external indicator indicates the exact opposite?