“I won't vote for the Conservative plan to stop taxing fuel. Suspending one tax for four months already costs a lot. The Conservative plan costs even more but they have no way to pay for it.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
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A Conservative motion to remove federal taxes on gas and diesel for the rest of the year. The Conservatives argued this would provide immediate relief to Canadians struggling with high fuel prices. The Liberals argued their previous excise tax reduction already addressed the issue, and that broad tax cuts would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Much of the debate consisted of partisan sniping between the Liberals and Conservatives.
“That makes no sense. I want to make his complaint look small and silly.”
“Perhaps you're confused about who you're talking about. I want to correct you.”
“I don't want to argue your real point about taxes and waste driving up gas prices today. I want to quibble with your chosen oil price comparison year to dodge the real issue. Talking about a detail in 2014 might make me look smart and let me avoid saying anything about affordability now.”
“I'm listing good-sounding things our government did. Suspended a gas tax, sent payments to many people, cut other taxes, capped some bank fees. These help Canadians. None of it caused global problems. World events made things expensive, not us.”
“You're right, we must reduce taxes we control. But my party should spend lots of money too! Keep funding our big social programs. My voters love them. They help so many people. These programs are good for everyone, even voters in other ridings.”
“I want to look responsible. Long-term problems don't matter. Just spend money on the problem right in front of us right now.”
“I want to look good by cheering for my teammate. I want to change the subject to easy topics that make us look caring. What did voters say they want from us?”
“People are happy the government spends to help them. They don't want big changes, just a government that gives them things when they need it.”
“I'm just going to talk about other benefits and ignore the specific question about clean fuel rules.”
“I'm going to fill my time by arguing with things Conservatives said earlier, instead of addressing the clean fuel motion we're debating. I'll list benefit programs my party passed and say Conservatives are bad for voting against them. I don't need to explain why my programs are good, just that I'm for them and Conservatives aren't.”
“You Conservatives gave money to rich people, so don't lecture me about affordability now. I'm proud of what our government did. We could do better, but I won't help rich people by voting for your gas tax motion.”
“I'm saying no, that Conservative idea helps the rich more. Not that it only helps the rich. I'm arguing about who it helps most.”
“You say you want to help people. But you Conservatives voted against my school food bill. How does that help kids in your riding?”
“Thanks for proposing the bill. Canada badly needed a school food program. You Conservatives didn't support it. Feeding kids is important. Come see the good work in my riding.”
“You voted against spending. I want to spend more money. You don't support my programs. You aren't serious.”
“I want to call the Conservatives hypocrites. We proposed many expensive programs. The Conservatives voted against them. They say they care about affordability. But they didn't vote for our expensive programs. I say this makes them look bad.”
“I want to fix a small mistake in our bill. The bill forgot to include leaded aviation gasoline in the temporary fuel tax relief. We will fix this soon.”