Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for his election to the House. The previous member from Wild Rose was a colourful character, and the member has big shoes and a big hat to fill. I do want to welcome him to this chamber.
I want to remind the member that when the last Conservative government was in power, we did have a $23 billion deficit, unemployment was over 10% and interest rates were over 11%. It did get straightened out, but now we have another Conservative government here. According to all the projecting agencies, it would appear that we are right back in the very same boat and on the same path that Canadians soundly rejected before, and the deficit again is somewhere between $20 billion and $50 billion.
It appears to me that I have seen this movie before and it does not end well for working-class families, and that is both in the technical sense and in the real sense.
In the last election, the Prime Minister went to every province and every city and he gave us a steady dose of pablum that there would be no recession and no deficit and that anyone who suggested otherwise was ridiculous.
Days after the election was over he changed his tune and said that not only was a deficit essential but that people who did not support a deficit were being overly simplistic in their thinking.
Obviously the Prime Minister knew this--