Mr. Speaker, one of the best tools that Canadians have to evaluate whether the Liberal approach to the economy is the right one is to look back in history.
The largest and worst recession Canada ever had since the Great Depression was between 1980 and 1982 under former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It is really instructive to see what happened during that time.
We remember it was a time of high deficit. It was a time of high debt and taxes. At that time, the interest rates in Canada were somewhere around 20%. Today they are around 5% to 6%. The inflation rate back then was 20% and unemployment was 30%. Today, employment is around 6%.
How is it that the member now believes the Liberal Party would do a better job of managing the economy than they did between 1980 and 1982?