Mr. Speaker, there is a double problem with those sanctimonious kinds of interventions by the NDP. The first is that the NDP has no sense of fiscal responsibility. The NDP has never been government and never will be government so it can tell us to spend money in absolutely unlimited quantities, by the hundreds or the tens of billions.
The second problem is that the NDP has itself brought about these cuts by siding with the Conservative government and helping to bring it into existence.
The other answer I would give is that I am proud of the Liberal record. If we look over the post-war period, yes, there is always more work to be done, yes, nothing is perfect, but over the last decade the Liberal government and preceding Liberal governments have made enormous progress in dealing with the poverty of the elderly and have made enormous progress in dealing with child poverty through child tax credits now coming to $10 billion plus per year.
We are proud of our record, even though at the same time we understand there will always be more work to do and more challenges out there. However, unlike the NDP, we also must look at the nation's finances and phase in those reforms as the funds become available.