Mr. Speaker, I would advise Canadians to be extremely wary of opposition speculation. It is seldom either accurate or fair. The opposition has an agenda to scare Canadians. We have seen this over and over, especially during the election, and usually not based on a shred of truth.
The two year planning horizon is because Canadians are tired of promises down the road, that five years from now they are going to really get something, but hardly any of it happens now. Canadians want to know that if the government promises something, it will be now and they can count on it, that it is going to be this year, that it is going to be in the next few months. That is reasonable. The Liberal promises are made for half a decade down the road, but anything can happen; there are all kinds of variables. If the promises are made and kept now, quickly, then Canadians know they can take them to the bank. That is important.
The member bragged about the fiscal record of his government. I would be very careful if I were the member. Under the Liberal government spending increased 15% a year. In the last year how many Canadians had a 15% increase in their incomes so they could fund that kind of spending increase by the Liberals? If the spending increase had given them something useful in some respects, that might have been a different thing, but what did the public see? They saw money squandered and wasted for cronyism, pork-barrelling and corrupt practices.
When Canadians see that government is not managed in a fiscally sound way using their money overall, they get concerned. They are not willing to send money to Ottawa to be wasted, squandered and mismanaged in schemes that are not fair to all Canadians.
The member has a lot to answer for as part of a government that really destroyed Canadians' trust in many ways in the operations of government. That is why the Conservatives are keeping their promises now. We are keeping them in a short timeframe. We are putting into place good fiscal management, sound fiscal practices and more transparency and accountability so that taxpayers can actually see that their money is being properly used. I would ask the member opposite to applaud that because it is right for Canada.