Mr. Speaker, I have listened carefully to the remarks of our colleague across the way. I understood what he was trying to do. Unable to explain the difference between what the red book said and the government's record on the GST, he went into a defence of simplification and harmonization.
There is not a member in the House who has questioned the importance of harmonizing and simplifying taxes to make things easier for business. Our colleague across the way is not contributing to our understanding, because this is not what the debate is about. The Liberals are dragging it in that direction to avoid the real questions that should be asked, which the member for Chicoutimi brought out earlier.
In the red book, they said: "We hate this tax and we will scrap it". Now, instead of scrapping it, they are harmonizing it. This
way, things are so much nicer, it is less painful, and it brings in more money. They also said: "It should not be hidden". Now they are saying: "Magicians that we are, we have pulled it out of thin air, we have made it vanish, and now we are going to make it invisible".
But if simplification and harmonization are as wonderful as all that, why did the Atlantic provinces need to be paid $1 billion to go for the deal? The aim was to hide the tax in the price of food, medicine and books for educational purposes.