Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to hear the member talk about arguments being genuine. Did he not promise to scrap the GST? Is he not the person who promised his constituents he would scrap the GST? Apparently he has discovered some new found righteousness in the position. It is the same thing for helicopters.
Let us for a moment forget our partisan positions. I quote from a memo written to the Minister of Finance by Nesbitt Burns. He would not assume that Nesbitt Burns is a partisan outfit, that it would have a view. This was written to the minister with regard to advice for the upcoming budget:
While the Liberals claim to have slain the deficit dragon without resorting to significant tax hikes, federal tax receipts have still climbed $25 billion over the past four years—courtesy of bracket creep, closed loopholes, and economic growth. The flow-through impact from revenue measures of the past budgets will boost the tax bill by $2.6 billion this year alone.
If there has been any economic growth in Canada it has not been domestic. It is because of the free trade agreement established in 1988.
The same memo states:
The tax wedge between the two countries has already widened to unprecedented levels. Allowing it to widen further would harm competitiveness, stifle job creation, and keep the Canadian dollar on the downtrend. These are not the ingredients for a revival in our country's living standards. There is also strong evidence that the growing tax gap is prompting record numbers of high income Canadian professionals to move south of the border—particularly doctors, educators and engineers.
That is from major financial institution in the country. That is the response it is giving to this Liberal member. Rather than whine and complain, I hope he would face up to these hard realities and offer those who are suffering in this country answers instead of trying to blame everything on another government that was defeated in 1993.