Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the short speech.
The fact is that the situation is changing rapidly. It is deteriorating rapidly. Anybody who has studied it knows that. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has an opinion and he is entitled to it.
The simple fact is the Prime Minister took action a year ago, the kind of action the United Kingdom government is taking today. We are ahead of the United Kingdom by about a year.
As I said in my remarks, as 2% of the world's economy, there is no way we can avoid what is going on in the rest of the world. The other 98% will take us along with it, whether we like it or not.
What we can do is take measures that will alleviate to the extent possible, and it may not be very much, the impact on Canadians. We need a government, a Prime Minister, who is not afraid to make tough decisions, who is not afraid to lead. That is something we had been missing for many years until January 23, 2006. We have it now. We will be better for it and all Canadians will be proud of us and will thank us.