Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague's speech and she forgot to mention that the first two years we were in office, the Conservative government paid down the national debt of $37 billion. She also forgot to mention that while that happened, we lowered taxes, like the GST from 7% to 6% to 5%.
She also forgot to mention that at that time there was an incredible, some called it a world depression, in 2008, when all the G8 countries got together and decided that they would massively infuse cash into the system. Canada, being the only country at that time that did so, had an objective of paying down that debt and coming into a balanced budget position, which we did, leaving the Liberals with a modest increase in the budget, but also, in March, provided the same government with about $7.5 billion in its coffers, which it quickly spent.
Having now heard those facts, could the member explain to the House why the government thought it would be necessary to go back into a deficit position, bringing about all the things that we have heard about today, which would cause so much havoc for our children and grandchildren in the future?