Mr. Speaker, I know that the member for Ontario wants to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I am going to give it to him.
I know what the red book said. It said replace the GST. Canadians all know why the member from Hamilton had to resign. It was going to be scrapped, turfed, abolished, done away with, or whatever phrase was used. The Prime Minister said: "This thing will be gone, eliminated, trashed". I know it was in print but I also know it was on television and that is why the member had to resign.
For ourselves, from the Reform Party's perspective, our words during the last election were consistent with our printed material and our public pronouncements. What we said was that it was at that time not feasible to eliminate the GST but what we had at that time was our zero in three plan to eliminate the deficit and then reduce and eliminate the GST.
We realized during the election campaign that we could not promise to eliminate the GST at that time. We were upfront about that. I know in my own case in my riding the Liberal candidate said he would lie down on the railroad tracks and he was going to fall on his sword and commit hara-kiri and what all he would not have done because "you can count on me, that GST is gone". It was a little embarrassing for me to stand up and say: "The Reform Party can't make that promise because it is not the truth" and so we did not promise that.
I ran on it and probably lost votes because it is easy to say: "Let's get rid of it". On campaign issues I like to try to tell the truth. I am sure the member for Ontario did as well during the campaign. Not every politician does. However, on Senate reform and on accountability, I am only reading back to him the words of his leader. Those words said that Senate should be elected, it should be accountable, it should be effective, it should represent the west and the Atlantic region and to follow up with the auditor general's comments, it should be in whatever form it is efficient and accountable for the taxpayers' dollars.
I stand by those words and I will campaign on those words.