Madam Speaker, I am going to get to the question right away, but first I want to wish people a happy Diwali. Diwali is celebrated in every region of the country. It is a part of our Canadian heritage. It is about good over evil, light over darkness, knowledge versus ignorance. I think Canadians, whatever their background, should get out there and celebrate Diwali.
Having said that, I appreciate the member's comments. Obviously, I do not agree with the member's comments, because what he has been tasked with doing is what I classify as a character assassination, where a Conservative member goes out of their way to take down an individual. Often we see it of ministers. Now we even see it of potential future politicians. Mark Carney has, in fact, contributed as a public servant in many ways, not only here in Canada but also in the U.K. As governor of the Bank of Canada, he was at the forefront of public policy.
I find it very disturbing when Conservatives are so focused on tearing people down without legitimate justification. The equivalent would be my taking four minutes to be critical of Jenni Byrne, for example. Jenni Byrne is very cozy with the leader of the Conservative Party and the Conservative caucus. She is a lobbyist. One of the firms her company lobbies for is Loblaw. Canadians are concerned about food inflation and that Loblaw might have been gouging consumers, yet that individual is in the inner circle of the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. I would suggest she is probably closer to the leader, in different ways, than most Conservative members of Parliament. She carries a great deal of influence. As I said, I do not want to spend my full four minutes talking about that.
Rather, I want to talk about some things we have witnessed over the last number of years, as there have been challenges in the economy. We look to individuals like Tiff Macklem, the current Governor of the Bank of Canada, the same governor the leader of the Conservative Party says we should be firing and the same governor who dismisses him completely. Because of that leadership and the administration of public policy, from Ottawa and other jurisdictions, today we have an inflation rate of less than 2%. We are on target. Interest rates are going down. I realize that goes against what the Conservatives want to do, which is to assassinate characters. Mr. Macklem is probably one of those individuals. At one point, the Conservative leader was critical of him. He has backed off a bit, to his credit.
We have a lot of people who have done so much for our country. We should—