Mr. Speaker, for the soccer mom who has five kids and a Dodge Caravan, if the price of gas goes from 90ยข a litre to $2.50 a litre, she still has to get her kids to school. She still has to get to work. She still has to run errands and do a lot of things. She still has to fill up her van.
The whole point of price elasticity is that there is a price at which demand changes. The government is intervening there. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.
I really hope that my colleague goes back to economics 101, and I certainly hope that the Prime Minister can stand in this House and answer the most basic of questions. The government needs to show data. In a cold, sparsely populated country, where we have to drive to places and we have to heat our homes, demand will not change because of its tax. It will not affect the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. All it will do is increase the cost of everything.
That is why this is the number one fallacy. This is why economists raise this as an issue over and over again. The Liberals want Canadians to forget this because they want more tax dollars for their ridiculous spending.