On February 6, 1996 the Liberal member for Broadview-Greenwood said: "We are going to defend the status quo. You can tell by the way we are treating the GST. I am dead in the water with this government. It is one word, trust. I am doing my best to fight for tax reform, but my best is not good enough".
"Get rid of the GST" has become harmonized. "Kill the GST" has become harmonized. "Abolish the GST" has become harmonized.
As the Liberal member for York South-Weston, a former Liberal leadership candidate stated: "I hope we do not try to hoodwink people into thinking our commitment was contingent on the provinces agreeing to harmonize their taxes with the GST".
This potential Liberal leader further stated: "The integrity and credibility of the Prime Minister are at at issue. He made promises. We all made promises. We went door to door to scrap the GST and if we do not keep that promise it will be very difficult for Liberal MPs to go into an election knocking on the same doors, asking support once again from people they lied to in the first election campaign".
In the red book the Liberals promised to replace the GST. They cannot even do that.
In a desperate act the Liberal government proposes to transfer the problem of getting rid of the GST to the provinces by promoting a national sales tax, by promoting harmonization which will be nothing more than a change in name to the son of the GST.