Mr. Speaker, there are several items in the Speech from the Throne where common ground can be found but I am disappointed, as I said earlier this afternoon, that the whole issue of productivity was not mentioned in the Speech from the Throne, which is one of the areas I want the member to address. He only talked about it in one sentence.
Over the past 13 years, when this issue was front and centre, we have seen substantial reductions of debt, employment has been up, productivity has been up, interest rates are down, and whatever international indices one wants to compare it to, Canada has done very well. If we were to compare that to 13 years ago, when that issue was not front and centre, we had a deficit of $43 billion, the interest rate was 13%, unemployment was 11%, debt to GDP ratio was 73% and the country was a disaster.
What assurance can the member give Canadians that we are not on the very same track that we were on 13 years ago when the economy of this country was an absolute total disaster?