Mr. Speaker, it is pretty clear to everybody in the world, actually, except perhaps the leader of the NDP, that there is a synchronized global recession. We can look at the GDP numbers in Japan. We can look at the decline in GDP in China. We can look at the numbers, especially in eastern Europe and western Europe as well. Canada is faring relatively well. We went into this recession with the strongest fiscal position in the G7 because we had paid down $38 billion worth of debt over the first three budgets. We are in a much better position to weather this storm than other countries.
In the House of Commons on March 10th, 2009. See this statement in context.