Mr. Speaker, I think the member opposite should be proud of some of the things that were done by the former government. We did inherit a balanced budget and we are glad for that.
The fact of the matter is that the fiscal health that this country has enjoyed is largely because of free trade. The party opposite fought free trade tooth and nail. Without free trade we would not have been in such a good economic position.
The Liberal government stumbled so badly on issues it did not need to stumble on. One just has to look at the aboriginal communities that are living in the most appalling conditions. One only has to look at the lack of trust through the sponsorship scandal, the million dollar boondoggle, the wild spending that was not supposed to take place and the lack of fiscal responsibility. If the Liberals are going to be proud of the good things, they need to take responsibility for the failures.
It was a government that promised a lot of things and says that if it had not been defeated by the opposition it would have brought them in. The fact is that the Liberal government had 13 years to bring them in. What was it that had to be done in the last 13 days?
Every minority government knows very well that it can be defeated at a moment's notice. It does not have the votes to keep going. Therefore, to suddenly cry the blues because a minority government fell, a government that was hanging on by a thread, disgusting Canadians day in and day out with the corruption that was coming out in the news and the inquiries that were going on into its affairs, does not make a lot of sense.
The former government deserved to be defeated. The present government is going to begin, in a sensible way, to repair the damage that was done and to move forward to build a better Canada. That is our mandate and that is what we will do.