Parti Québécois Balkanizes

[viper37]

That upset the frog in me. 

The frog in you was either too young or not attentitive enough to notice the large protests over the issue at the time.

It single-handedly ended the Mulroney government and the Progressive Conservative party.  Sure, some people were also annoyed by Free Trade, but it was the GST that ended the PCs as a party.

Meech & Charlottetown too.

[viper37]

Chretian ran on ripping it up,

Yet Chrétien never did and abandonned his promise after the first term.  Still, he was elected twice after that.

[crazy canuck]

Chretian ran on ripping it up,

Yet Chrétien never did and abandonned his promise after the first term.  Still, he was elected twice after that.

By that time the anger over the GST subsided.

[Neil]

Chretian ran on ripping it up,

Yet Chrétien never did and abandonned his promise after the first term.  Still, he was elected twice after that.

Chretien didn't run for election until 6 1/2 years after the tax had come into effect.  By that point, people were used to it.  Moreover, there wasn't a government-in-waiting that was promising to eliminate the tax and making it an issue.  Neither Reform nor the Bloc had the capacity to form a government during that period, and nobody was much interested in voting for the PCs or NDP.

[viper37]

Chretian ran on ripping it up,

Yet Chrétien never did and abandonned his promise after the first term.  Still, he was elected twice after that.

Chretien didn't run for election until 6 1/2 years after the tax had come into effect.  By that point, people were used to it.  Moreover, there wasn't a government-in-waiting that was promising to eliminate the tax and making it an issue.  Neither Reform nor the Bloc had the capacity to form a government during that period, and nobody was much interested in voting for the PCs or NDP.

The GST came in effect on January 1st 1991.  Chrétien ran for election somewhere in 1993 (fall, I think).
He promised to abolish the GST then, and in 1997 he proposed to change its name.  In 2000, he didn't even bother.  By 2004, it was Paul Martin.

Charlottetown however was in 1992.  Knowing the attention span of the average elector, it had probably more of an effect.

And the Reform was created in 1987, right when the talks for Meech began. It was always opposed to Meech, and obviously Charlottetown.
The roots of this discontent lay mainly in their belief that a package of proposed constitutional amendments, called the Meech Lake Accord, failed to meet the needs of Westerners and Canadian unity overall.