Mr. Speaker, it is borderline humorous when I hear member after member from the Conservative Party stand in their places and try to give the impression to Canadians that there was a Conservative surplus budget.
In reality, if the previous government demonstrated anything, it demonstrated that it did not have the ability from within to be able to manage a budget to a surplus. History and the facts clearly demonstrate that.
My question to the member is as follows. Why do the member and his Conservative colleagues believe that they have an ounce of credibility on the issue of deficits, when they have failed so miserably in terms of being able to deliver a balanced budget?
The budget during the election year that they talk about as they stand in their places today is not a balanced budget. No matter how often they try to repeat it. It is a deficit budget. Every budget leading up to that with the Conservative government was a deficit budget. In total, over $150 billion was added to Canada's debt because of the Conservatives and they got a stagnant Canadian economy. Canadians wanted investments but they never received them.