Mr. Speaker, the NDP was the first to condemn these ruthless cuts by the Tory government. However, I must comment on the revisionist history that we heard from the member for Markham—Unionville because his government was the most right wing government in the history of Canada. The cutting, hacking and slashing of every social program by which we define ourselves was not only ruthless and mean-spirited, it bordered on being cruel.
I represent the poorest riding in Canada. I am not proud of that but I can say that the Liberals' ruthless cutbacks hurt people in tangible and measurable ways in my riding. I will give one example and ask the member if he can remember, if he can shake up his memory a little bit.
Of the $100 billion in tax cuts that the Liberals gave largely to their friends, $30 billion came from the EI fund surplus through their cuts and $30 billion came from grabbing the entire surplus of the public service pension plan, which was Marcel Massé's gift to the public service pension plan. They took the entire $30 billion surplus without negotiating whatsoever. How is that for being cruel? How is that for a gender lens? Most of those pensioners, who earn on average $9,000 a year, are women living in poverty on their public service pension plan. The other $30 billion came from program cuts.
I remember that era very well. The member for Markham—Unionville was not here for all of it, but, believe me, we had the most right wing finance minister in the history of Canada making the most ruthless, cruel, gender imbalance cuts that created poverty that this country has ever seen.
Will the member concede that he has been sent here to read a speech that is full of baloney, frankly, and will he concede that his government was responsible for the sum total of misery in ridings like mine that the country will never forget?