Madam Speaker, the member made a very pragmatic speech this afternoon. His intervention really hit on some important themes.
I was interested in his comments about the notions of how to deal with stimulating the economy. My colleague mentioned, for example, the difficulty in taking a country out of a prolonged period of deficit. There is no question that Canada has learned from the lessons of the 1970s and 1980s.
Considering that this government in the past almost three years has reduced debt by some $38 billion, would my colleague not agree that we are in a position to move ahead and put stimulus into the economy? Would he not consider that a balanced budget at all costs would also not be the right way to proceed?