Mr. Speaker, I have been listening with some amusement to the comments the member made and I would indicate to him that having a surplus is not particularly difficult. Any Joe could have a surplus. If we look at how the Liberal government did it, it was not by good business practices but by taxing hard-working Canadians who had to work harder to pay more taxes. If we burden the people, we will get more money, but the Liberals balanced their books and got a surplus on the backs of Canadians.
First, they took $25 billion from the provinces and the municipalities that had to forgo infrastructure and certain things that had to be done. They tried to balance their books on the backs of ordinary Canadians. They then raided the EI account by taking $50 billion from that account for their own pet political projects and then said that they had a piddling surplus.
They did it on the backs of ordinary Canadians, which is nothing to brag about. It was not because of good business practices. They took it from hard-working Canadians. What did they do with that money? They spent it.
We reduced taxes for ordinary Canadians. We reduced the deficit by $38 billion in the years we were in government. We not only reduced taxes but we put money into infrastructure. During the difficult times, we were there helping Canadians and ensuring that we were not balancing the books by taxing ordinary Canadians.
What would they do if they became government? The Liberal Leader of the Opposition said that he would raise the GST, raise taxes, spend--