Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, the member for Markham—Unionville, whose speech was brilliant, as is usually the case. He is one of the people I am happiest to see rise in the House to ask questions, other than the people in our party of course, because his questions are always brilliant, intelligent, right on the mark and well put.
That said, my colleague has just talked to us about the major economic crisis hitting Canada and the world as a whole. I think he is quite familiar with this subject. If I am not mistaken, he is an economist and has worked for the banks in the past. So he is very familiar with the situation. Personally, I think this economic crisis is going to be far more serious than is being forecast, and far more serious than it is at the moment. That is my own opinion. I am not an economist, I am a carpenter, but I can tell when things are level and square. At the moment, the economy is neither level nor square anywhere in the world and for a number of specific reasons.
The basic reason lies at the very foundation of the economy. As we know, what underlies today's economies are the broad theories of Adam Smith—production, work and consumption. And it is not working anymore. It is impossible to keep on consuming, producing and polluting indefinitely. Economic theory itself is going to have to be revised.
I think my colleague could discuss that. Every day, however, he rises, intelligent man that he is, to criticize the budget of our friends the Conservatives, opposite. However, at every opportunity, he rises and votes with them. How can such a brilliant man do something like that?