Mike Lake

[The Economy, February 27th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of misinformation, let us talk about the Liberal promises in the last election. Ten months ago, Canadians trusted the Liberal Prime Minister when he promised a budget deficit of only $62 billion. Five months ago, that number ballooned to $78 billion and, again this month, they added billions more, which is a promise clearly broken. Ten months ago, Canadians trusted the Liberal Prime Minister when he promised “to build the strongest economy in the G7.” Today, we have the weakest economy in the G7, and it is actually shrinking, another promise clearly broken.

Why should Canadians believe anything anyone over there has to say now?

[The Economy, February 27th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, real leaders take ownership of their mistakes. They learn and they change. Contrast that with the daily Liberal approach in the House of blame, blame, blame. The fact is that the Prime Minister's signature election promise was to “build the strongest economy in the G7.” That exact phrase appeared, word for word, 10 times in the Liberal platform.

Today we learned that Canada has the only shrinking economy in the G7. Our global competitors, faced with the same global challenges, are all doing better. Will someone take some ownership over there and admit that record Liberal spending is crushing the Canadian economy?

[Finance, February 25th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I would point out that there was not even an attempt to answer my question.

To put it in context, if we want to contrast, in 2008 we faced a global economic crisis, and our government at the time put in place a plan to spend money to get through the crisis, but with a plan to get back to a balanced budget by 2015, which we did. We had the richest middle class in the world, according to The New York Times at that point in time.

We can contrast that with his government's approach, which faced a global crisis and has run increasing deficits. In fact, in the election campaign just 10 months ago, the Liberals promised in their platform that they would run an astounding $62-billion deficit. That deficit grew to $78 billion in the fall, and then they announced a $12-billion plan to subsidize food, groceries, for a quarter of Canadians. How in the world did we get there?

[Finance, February 25th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, hopefully the parliamentary secretary does a better job with this question than the last one. It is interesting that he is here again today to pad his word count. I noticed that the challenge he had just now was that he was answering questions the Liberals knew were coming from the shadow minister for health. Rather than have the parliamentary secretary for health answer the questions, as would normally be the case, I do not know why they would have this parliamentary secretary answer. I do not know why he is here to answer my questions today as well.

The question I asked back in November came after the budget. At that point in time, Fitch Ratings came out raising an alarm. It said, in a release it put out, that “Canada’s...proposed budget, announced in Parliament on Nov. 4, underscores the erosion of the federal government’s finances”. It went on to say, “persistent fiscal expansion and a rising debt burden have weakened its credit profile and could increase rating pressure over the medium term.”

At that point in time, I raised the issue of the previous long-standing Liberal government, the government that was in place from 1993 until we finally got relief in January of 2006, just over 20 years ago. Of course, that government was dealing with the impacts of another previous Trudeau government that ran 14 deficits in 15 years. A generation later, the Chrétien-Martin government had to deal with the effects of all of those deficits and the debt that had risen. By the way, the debt that had been added was so high that the subsequent Mulroney government, who the Liberals at that time liked to say ran the biggest deficits in Canadian history, deficits that were entirely interest on Trudeau debt, was forced to cut 32% from the transfers for health, social services and education. I think it was called the Canada social transfer.

I raised the fact that at that point in time, those cuts were precipitated by a ratings cut. Fitch has announced that it is concerned about Canada's fiscal situation. I asked if anyone over there understood the situation. At that point, instead of the finance minister standing, the Minister of Energy stood up, and I am sure this is very reassuring for all Canadians. He said, “We are doing just fine.” That was the reassurance we got.

Therefore, I asked a second question that day and walked through some quotes from the early nineties from Reuters. From February 1994, it says, “Liberal government brings down what it considers to be a tough budget.... It nonetheless still has spending rising slightly, and immediate public and market reaction is it did not go nearly far enough.” In January 1995, this was a headline: “A biting editorial in the Wall Street Journal headlined 'Bankrupt Canada' calls Canada 'an honorary member of the Third World'”.

I have been raising this alarm and I think Canadians should be concerned, because the government has added another $16 billion in debt since the promise made at election time, and since the budget it has added billions more in spending that is not accounted for. I am curious how we have gone, in just a decade, from a country with a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world to a country that has to borrow from our kids to subsidize groceries for an entire generation.

[The Economy, February 25th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals' new leadership, Canada's multifront economic crisis has gotten objectively worse. The Liberal Prime Minister himself promised the $62-billion deficit. Their own budget shattered that promise, adding $16 billion in new debt, and they have added billions more in recent weeks. Young Canadians are taking on record personal debt to pay the bill. According to RBC, “64% of Millennials are anxious about their financial future as monthly costs squeeze budgets”.

Which Liberal minister will stand now to explain to those young Canadians why they should take on more personal liability and stress to cover ever-increasing Liberal debt?

[The Economy, February 25th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, less than a year ago, the Liberal election platform promised that the federal deficit would be limited to an already eye-popping $62 billion. That deficit exploded to $78 billion in the fall, with billions more added since. Our federal debt is now nearly two and a half times what it was just a decade ago. Meanwhile, the Toronto Star is warning this morning that Canadian household debt has risen to a record $2.6 trillion.

How have we gone, in just a decade, from a country with a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world to a country where Canadians are taking on record personal debt to pay off the bills passed down to them by their own federal government?

[The Conservative Party of Canada, February 4th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago, Canada elected a new Conservative government led by former prime minister Stephen Harper. The Harper legacy is one of true progress. It was a government that cut virtually every tax Canadians pay. It negotiated a record number of trade deals that are more critical now than ever. It navigated a global economic meltdown guided by the world-leading Harper-Flaherty economic action plan. It introduced the Muskoka initiative, widely recognized as one of the most impactful G7-G8 initiatives of all time. It launched life-changing programs, such as the registered disability savings plan and the ready, willing and able employment program.

By 2015, Canada had a balanced budget and, according to the New York Times, the richest middle class in the world. Today, that era may seem like a distant memory, but the story of our strong, principled, Conservative legacy offers Canadians hope for a better future, guided by another strong, principled, Conservative leader. We have done this before, and we can do it again.

[Finance, January 29th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I did not note an answer to the question there.

Earlier this week, CTV's Vassy Kapelos pointed this out to the Liberal House leader: “What you announced yesterday is more than $11 billion of additional government spending, but nobody from your government has said how you will pay for it.” As he does daily in the House, the House leader completely ignored the question, twice.

Now that he has had some time to think about it, will the House leader stand up and tell us where the billions of dollars will come from? Why was it not in the Liberal budget less than three months ago? What is the current budget deficit number the Liberal cabinet is now working with?

[The Economy, January 29th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, less than a year ago, the Liberals were elected on a platform that included an already astounding $62-billion deficit and lower food prices for Canadians. That deficit grew to $78 billion in the fall. This week, the Liberals announced $12 billion in new spending to deal with the ongoing food inflation crisis they created. This is a massive bill that will inevitably be passed on to the next generation.

How have we gone, in just a decade, from a country with a balanced budget and the richest middle class in the world to a country that has to borrow from our kids to subsidize groceries for a quarter of our population?

[Business of Supply, January 27th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, a few days ago, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Stephen Harper Conservative government. After a decade of being in power, the Harper government left with a balanced budget and what The New York Times referred to as the richest middle class in the world.

I would ask our hon. leader to reflect on what we did well under the Conservative government that led to those circumstances, which seem so distant now.