Mr. Speaker, I and my colleagues in the New Democratic Party come from the tradition that elections matter, democracy is vital to our nation and in order for Canadians to make valid choices and express their democratic will, they need to rely on what is said by political parties. It is the quaint notion of parties having integrity at election time. We all know that sometimes facts change, but the Liberal Party made a very deliberate and definite pledge to Canadians in 2015. Liberals said that they would run three modest deficits of about $10 billion each year and then balance the budget in the fourth year.
Incidentally, in 2015, we were not in recession. The economy was moving along between 1% and 2% growth and yet when Liberals got into office, they abandoned that completely. They are now running a deficit at about the $19-billion to $20-billion range and, as has been stated by my Conservative colleagues, with no plan whatsoever to bring the budget back to balance.
I have a clear question for my hon. colleague. Why did the Liberals abandon that clear pledge they made to Canadians in 2015 to lay out a fiscal plan and then as soon as they got into office, act in a completely opposite manner?