Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech.
I want to make a couple of comments and then ask a direct question. I think the comments I am going to make are important because we have approximately 200 new members in this place; and it seems there has to be a bit of a primer given to these new members on what actually occurred in years past, since I heard a bit of revisionist history being bandied about here today.
I know the member opposite is new to this place. I also want to make a comment based upon an exchange between the hon. member for Scarborough—Agincourt and my colleague the member for Durham. That exchange was based upon what happened in the global recession back in 2008. There seemed to be some criticism from the member opposite that we were running deficits. I would point out to all new members in this place that, during the time we were engaged in the debate on whether or not our government at the time should be running deficits, both the Liberals' and the NDP's main complaint was that the deficits were not large enough.
For any member of the opposition NDP and any member of the new Liberal government to complain that our deficit was some of the cause of our financial difficulties today is absolutely ludicrous.
My question is this. Why is it that the Liberals always seem to be wanting higher deficits when the Conservatives are the ones trying to get back to balance?