Mr. Speaker, I did not realize that I was not between the ditches. I would not want to put myself in that position. But perhaps I could remind hon. members why we are here debating this very important motion.
If the hon. member had been listening, he would have heard at the outset of the speech the reference I made to how important this is, how critical this is that we get this done and get it done quickly. We have two provinces that have made commitments to their taxpayers, that have made commitments to their businesses that they are going to move forward with a harmonized value-added tax.
We have seen an incredible display already today in trying to hold that up. I am sure it may not be the premiers of those two provinces, but I am sure their legislators are watching with interest to see why it is being held up. They want to move on with the decision they have made, the decision that is within their jurisdiction to provide that sort of a tax program to their taxpayers, to their businesses. They have given the arguments in their legislature why they want to go ahead with it. It is our duty to provide them the avenue in which they can do that. That is what I am referring to here.
I am also making examples of the hypocrisy we are seeing. Some of the members of the House are standing and saying, “Don't raise people's taxes”, but yesterday they said, “Raise people's taxes”. There is no credibility to this, so I am pointing this out to make the argument why we need to get this through, why we need to get it through fast, why we do not need delay and filibuster from the NDP because it does not make any sense. There is no correlation with its past record and what it is going to come forward with here with what we have seen already.
There are one or two more quotes that are just so good that I cannot leave them out. The member for London—Fanshawe, if I can quote again, said, “I am absolutely astonished. I am breathless”.