Mr. Speaker, I am honoured that the official spokesperson on finance should be the one to ask me the first question.
It is very unfortunate that members of the official opposition enjoy talking down Canada's economy. They do it here in this place, they do it across the country and they even do it in foreign capitals. This is shameful.
I appreciate that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has mentioned that we are not reaching our full potential. I mentioned this in my own speech. We can do better, but we have to pull together. However, while we are at it, would it cost so much to admit that, while we are not achieving our full potential, we are driving better than any of the other G7 countries? We have created over one million net new jobs since the depth of the recession, and 90% of those jobs are full-time with 80% in the private sector.
While the NDP and the Liberals play partisan games, our government is focused on what actually matters to Canadians: helping to create jobs and promote economic growth. Job creation in the month of May is just another positive mark in this travel.