Sheila Copps On The Tory GST Cut
The 'Get Sheila Tax'
If I had to rewrite history, the one chapter of my time in politics I would like to erase is the sorry story of the GST.
As one who was elected to Parliament in the landslide Grit victory in 1993 after promising to abolish the hated tax, I shuddered along with most of the caucus when we flip-flopped three years later.
Like others, I expected we would deliver. But unlike others, I was actually foolish enough during the campaign to state, on national television, that if we didn't, I would resign my seat.
In the heat of battle, we sometimes make statements we later regret. That statement became my scarlet letter. So closely linked was I, personally, to the GST that in the finance minister's office, they referred to it as the "Get Sheila Tax."
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's campaign promise last week to slash the GST is Paul Martin's worst nightmare on two counts: First, the PM's billion-dollar-a-day spending spree on the eve of the election has undercut his own capacity to beat down the Harper promise. He has even sheepishly admitted that the 2% staged cut is affordable, although not his choice for returning taxpayers' dollars to their own pockets. More From Sheila Copps @ The Toronto Sun
Via Bourque
If I had to rewrite history, the one chapter of my time in politics I would like to erase is the sorry story of the GST.
As one who was elected to Parliament in the landslide Grit victory in 1993 after promising to abolish the hated tax, I shuddered along with most of the caucus when we flip-flopped three years later.
Like others, I expected we would deliver. But unlike others, I was actually foolish enough during the campaign to state, on national television, that if we didn't, I would resign my seat.
In the heat of battle, we sometimes make statements we later regret. That statement became my scarlet letter. So closely linked was I, personally, to the GST that in the finance minister's office, they referred to it as the "Get Sheila Tax."
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's campaign promise last week to slash the GST is Paul Martin's worst nightmare on two counts: First, the PM's billion-dollar-a-day spending spree on the eve of the election has undercut his own capacity to beat down the Harper promise. He has even sheepishly admitted that the 2% staged cut is affordable, although not his choice for returning taxpayers' dollars to their own pockets. More From Sheila Copps @ The Toronto Sun
Via Bourque
posted by UncleMeat at 1:59 PM
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