Madam Speaker, the current throne speech presented in the other House and written by the Prime Minister is a desperate statement of promises by a desperate government in a desperate situation.
To get elected the Liberal government promised to get rid of the GST but so far it has not kept its word. Here are some comments and quotes throughout the past few years.
On October 16, 1993 the Deputy Prime Minister said: "If the GST is not abolished under the Liberal government I will resign". On March 2, 1996 she changed this to: "If the GST is not replaced under a Liberal government I will resign".
On September 27, 1990 the Prime Minister said: "I want the tax dead". On May 2, 1994 he said: "We hate it. We will kill it".
The current Minister of Human Resources Development said: "The goods and services tax is a regressive tax. It has to be scrapped and we will scrap it".
The new revenue minister on March 24, 1994 said: "As Liberals we were elected to change the tax, abolish the tax, scrap it".
On April 4, 1990 the finance minister declared: "I would abolish the GST. The manufacturers' sales tax is a bad tax, but there is no excuse to repeal one bad thing by bringing in another one. Let me figure this out. Does he not think by merging the GST with the PST and bringing in a national sales tax he is doing the same thing? Is that not just replacing an old bad tax with a new bad tax?