Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few words on the GST bill, but I will first respond to the member for Elk Island who talked about the Alliance Party's new tax policy being a fair one, which is 17% across the board.
I want to tell everybody that its tax policy would give a big tax cut to the wealthy and the rich, because someone who makes an awful lot of money, as supposedly my friend from Alberta on my left does, making $300,000 or $400,000 a year, one can just imagine the kind of tax break he would have if he had a 17% tax break compared to what we have today in this country.
I was on an airplane a few hours ago. I picked up a newspaper and noticed that one of the candidates for the leadership of the Alliance Party, Tom Long, had a fundraiser in Muskoka. I think when we look at where political parties get their money from, it tells us a lot about political parties. I remember the reform party, since I come from the west, talking about being grassroots and representing ordinary people who come and put money in a hat and it picks up a few dollars here and there.
Tom Long had a fundraiser in the Muskokas. What do members think they charged for this fundraiser? First, it was not a big dinner with steak and wine; it was finger foods and the sipping of champagne. What do members think they charged? The member from Kamloops has guessed $100, while someone else has guessed $200. They charged $5,000 a person to go to a fundraiser for a leadership candidate of the Alliance Party, some grassroot party, some party in touch with ordinary people. It has become the party of Bay Street, the party that has been hijacked by the Bay Street barons. That is what has happened to the reform party of Canada, and then it pretends that it is speaking for the ordinary people of this country.