. . . I don't think either of the Liberals or the Conservatives are going to plunge us into deficit.

We have huge expenditures both in the Gulf area and huge expenditures in Iraq. This is something liberals and conservatives can agree upon - take care of those in need ... but also have a revenue source to take care of that.

That's not very interesting to the premiers . . . They are talking big, big bucks.

Absolutely, it's affordable. I am not saying it's easy, but . . . it's extremely reasonable. It would be unreasonable to have a federal government growing at much more than that; we have to learn to live within budget.

It's obvious the new finance minister has very little discretion over the next several years. The Conservative fiscal plan of election 2006 exhausted virtually all fiscal surpluses in sight.

One of the key things here is. . .the road infrastructure to improve Canada-U.S. trade, that's one of the best things we can do to improve productivity.