Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from the hon. member because he is absolutely right. It is about choices. In fact, hosting the G8 and the G20 actually cost Canadian taxpayers and Canadian families over $1.2 billion. This is in addition to the fact that the Conservative government has spent, since being elected, over $600 million on government advertising, much of it focused on self-promotional advertising, which ought to be paid for by the Conservative Party.
The hon. member is quite right. This money comes from somewhere. It is effectively tax dollars that hard-working Canadian middle-class families are sending to Ottawa and are expecting us to manage it well. The government has given Canadian record levels of deficit through a combination of high spending and bad fiscal management. That comes at a real cost to Canadian families that are struggling to make ends meet.