Mr. Speaker, I believe I did just comment on that in my remarks. I made the point that we are elected to stand here and vote in our places and act in the best interests of Canadians, but I do want to challenge the member on his rose-coloured glasses approach to Canada's economy. The numbers simply do not tell the full story. How can we say our economy is in great shape when the people in it, in many cases, are not doing very well at all?
In my city of Toronto we have more than one million working people who make less than $10 an hour and therefore are below the poverty level. Tell me that is economic success.
Yes, our national debt is being reduced but quite frankly that debt is being transferred on the backs of average hard-working Canadians. Families have a higher level of debt than ever before. In the long term, it is not sustainable.
What is most shameful is to see young people starting out at the very beginning of their adult lives saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt in post-secondary education costs at a time when they should be free of that kind of fear, worry and insecurity. They are starting out in their lives unable to have the confidence to embark on their careers, to establish a family and to look forward to many working years.