Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the hon. member's question. It is true that we had deficit spending during the depths of our recession, but if we had listened to them at that time, we would have spent even more money. The fact is, we managed the recession better than any other country in the G7. We did it carefully, and we did it in partnership with the provinces and municipalities.
In terms of controlling public finances and expenditures, we did not do what the government he belonged to did, which was dump it on the provinces. From 1965 to 1995, health care costs in our country were financed on a 50% basis by the Government of Canada. In one fell swoop, when the member was in government in 1995, they closed it down to 14¢ on the dollar. We are not going to do that.
As far as military spending is concerned, we know that while they were there, it was called the decade of darkness.