Mr. Speaker, I do not think the government really understands or gets the picture of the importance of Canada's middle class. We need to recognize that it is the middle class that generates the economic growth that Canada needs, and at the end of the day the government has not been able to generate the types of jobs that are important to our middle class.
We have seen literally tens of thousands of good valuable jobs lost in the last few years, particularly in industries such as our manufacturing industry. We have had very recent examples of that.
I wonder if the member would explain to the viewers why the government has not been successful in generating the type of economic growth in which Canadians expect their government to demonstrate leadership.
The 1.2 million new jobs that the government always makes reference to is hogwash. In the last year and a half, it is a very small percentage of jobs that have actually been generated compared with the amount of growth in population and so forth.
Could the member explain why the government has failed Canadians in dealing with the important issue of job creation to support Canada's middle class?