Mr. Speaker, I guess my colleague's accusation may have more credibility, except that the concept of net debt is one that is used all around the globe. It is the international standard. It is what the OECD uses. It is the way countries compare each other. This is exactly the standard that all other countries use. To somehow suggest that it is inappropriate I think maybe the hon. member would want to go to the OECD or the World Bank and make his case, but wiser heads than his, I might suggest, say that net debt is an entirely appropriate standard to start at.
With respect to the other debts, student debt, the national debt of over $400 billion is a student debt. Guess who is going to get to pay it off. It will be students with their earnings in the future.
Every dollar we pay down on the nation's debt, no matter what it is called or how we quibble about its measurement or whether we challenge the OECD on it, is a mortgage that our kids are not going to have to pay. That is a good thing.