Mr. Speaker, I was touched by the attentiveness of the hon. member opposite to my speech. He noted that we had all these crazy young ideas like jobs, creativity and education, and I am glad that he was listening carefully.
We do indeed believe that a government in waiting, like ours, that seeks to secure the confidence of Canadians will have very formidable challenges to overcome. The government inherited, from this side of the House, a $12 billion surplus, then spent like drunken sailors for three years until the edge of the recession, taking us to the edge of deficit before the recession began, and then took us from a $32 billion deficit to a $56 billion deficit and now presumes to tell us that we are the problem. It defies belief.
We believe that is the first challenge and we have dealt with that challenge before. As the Speaker will well remember, we inherited a $43 billion deficit from the previous administration. We will inherit a $56 billion deficit from this one. We cleaned it up last time. We will clean it up this time, and then we will set to rebuilding the Canadian economy.