Mr. Speaker, I dealt with that part of the member's question in my remarks this morning. I said that we were right to criticize the GST. The timing was wrong, it caused duplication and tremendous costs were imposed on business.
I also said in my speech this morning that we were mistaken in believing we could bring in a new tax immediately that would not cause a distortion to the economy. In fact we went through two and one-half years of very hard work. The House of Commons finance committee heard over 500 witnesses and considered 700 briefs. We
looked at a series of over 20 alternatives before coming down with this which is by far the best public policy.
The hon. member can continue along this vein as long as he wants but what is painfully evident is the lack of substance in the Reform Party's questions. The issue is that the Reform Party has stated that it supports harmonization. Does the Reform Party want to deal with the substance of the issue or in fact deal with what Canadians want?