Pat Kelly

“Mr. Speaker, I always get a kick out of listening to Conservatives tell us that they are great at balancing a budget and that they left a balanced budget when they left in 2015. When we look at the last two Conservative governments, of Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper, they introduced 19 budgets. How many of those did they balance? They balanced three. Does anyone know why? The first two came on the heels of Paul Martin’s surpluses. When Paul Martin, the Liberal finance minister and prime minister, left government, he left Stephen Harper with a surplus that allowed him to balance two budgets. Then he ran deficits for the rest. How did Stephen Harper balance that one in 2015 that the member referenced at the beginning of his speech? He balanced it by selling off shares of GM at bargain prices. He balanced it by slashing veterans services and, for the first time in recorded history, had our defence at less than 1% of our GDP. Please, can the member tell me—”