Mr. Speaker, I am confused by the zeal with which he talks about never running a deficit, given that the previous government ran so many deficits, including a deficit to run its so-called economic action plan, the efficacy of which could be challenged.
In reviewing the history of where we have come, in 1993, The Wall Street Journal called Canada an honorary member of the third world. It said that our economy was a basket case, that we had the worst debt-to-GDP ratio of any country, and that we had the worst job creation record in the G8. In fact, across almost every economic indicator we were at the bottom. When the Liberal government left in 2004, the party opposite inherited a state that was completely the opposite. It was the envy of the world. It was called “the Canadian miracle”, where we ran a consecutive surplus, while paying down the deficit. Then the member's party ran deficits almost entirely during its time in office.
If the member does not agree, was he against the economic action plan that his own government ran? Was he opposed to the deficits that his own government ran to try to stimulate the economy? I am confused by his contradiction.