January 27, 1966 (27th Parliament, 1st Session)

Hon. C. M. Drury (Minister of Industry):

Mr. Speaker, yesterday during an exchange on the orders of the day a question was asked of me in relation to motor car prices, and I misunderstood the question. I had understood, in the background noise, that I was being asked whether I had said during the election campaign that there would be parity of car prices in Canada and the United States, to which my answer was no.
On reading Hansard I found that the question, as reported at page 282 of Hansard, was:
Did the minister not make an announcement during the election campaign to the effect that the price of Canadian cars had been reduced?
Of course, Mr. Speaker, the answer to that question is "Yes". An announcement was made in late October, on October 28, pointing out that announcements by Canadian automobile manufacturers respecting 1966 models indicated that in relation to similarly equipped 1965 model cars, there were reductions in prices. I do not want to have misled the house. There were reductions in car prices compared to similarly equipped 1965 model cars, and I did make an announcement in October last to that effect.