Madam Speaker, I was in the House when the Harper Conservative government ran deficits every single year from 2008 to 2015. It ran seven straight successive deficits. As a matter of fact, most of the debt that is piled up in this country was acquired under Conservative governments and Liberal governments. The Department of Finance did a study a few years back and found that per year of government in this country at the provincial and federal levels, the party that balanced the budget the highest percentage of the time was the New Democrats. That is a fact of this country.
I want to challenge the member on the idea that health care is purely provincial. The federal government, through the Canada Health Act, sets out principles and then negotiates with the provinces. If the provinces deliver health care and meet the requirements of the act, they are entitled to transfer payments.
Does my friend agree that we can do the same thing with dental care simply by expanding our system to cover this neglected part of our body that has been excluded for no reason other than a historical anomaly? Does he not understand or agree that dental care was always intended to be part of our medicare system, going right back to the 1964 Hall report? Can he explain why he does not support having dental care covered like every other part of our body is?