Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today, but I do not know if it is laughable or annoying to hear the New Democrats talk about economic policy. For many people across this country maybe it is academic, but for those of us who have actually had to live under NDP governments it is not a joke. In many ways, it was the thing that destroyed the economy.
I come from Saskatchewan. For 50 years, we had NDP governments there, and their policies ensured that our economy was lagging far behind that of our neighbours. They refused to develop our resources. The taxation and investment policies basically destroyed the local economy. It is only in the last 10 years, when we have been able to get rid of them, that we have started to gain some ground on the neighbours around us.
It is interesting today to hear them, in some areas, copying our policies and then trying to sell them as their own. Their tax credits they say are good; ours are some sort of punishment or whatever. At home, the NDP candidates now have started a campaign for the next election, and all I am reading in the literature they are sending out is that raising taxes is the key, that we need to keep raising taxes.
I need a bit of time here to talk about this. It is important. Every time these folks get into office, they destroy the economy. They never build it; they have no credibility. Why would they expect Canadians to trust them?