Madam Speaker, at stake today is not the Reform position on the GST. At stake today are promises made during the election campaign which were very influential. When knocking on doors I heard all the time: "Why are you not promising to eliminate the GST? Why are you not doing this?" I said that we could not do so responsibly. People said that nevertheless they would vote for the people who would get rid of it. I won in my riding but I wonder in how many ridings the Liberals squeaked by, especially in Ontario, because they made this promise which they knew they could not keep. That is the issue. It is not an issue of how we m
Co-operative as we are with the finance committee, we are trying to understand what is best for Canada given what we have known all along but what the Liberals had denied during the election campaign: We cannot get rid of the GST but how can we make it better? Harmonization will be better but it will not solve the fundamental problems which are documented in the examples I have given. That is the issue.
The Liberals continue to claim that they did not say they would get rid of it. They have twisted it and said they would harmonize it and do something else, as if that would solve the problem. After studying the GST more than I ever wanted to, I can say that harmonization will not solve the problems that have made Canadians unhappy enough to tell me they would vote for the Liberals because I would not promise to get rid of it.