Let Them Eat Cake and Charge Them HST
Ontario finance minister Duncan, motivated me to drop my pleasant demeanor and pour some indelicate phrases into the ear of his riding office secretary. He did this by having a Marie Antoinette moment on local radio, when he assured listeners that by August we will have forgotten the HST. Perhaps we can also learn to eat cake by then. When I heard him, I was driven to relieve him of the anxiety of waiting until August to see whether we would all go back to sleep. I told the speechless secretary to please inform him before then, that I would work day and night to keep that — ——- from getting re-elected.
In a way, I can’t blame his insufferable arrogance. We are doing everything possible to reassure him and McGuinty that they have little to fear from the fallout. What is even more demoralizing is that the groundswell of opposition to the HST in British Columbia, is approaching the point of forcing a referendum. Won’t the invertebrate populus of Ontario look good if BC succeeds in blocking it, while we swallow the hook whole?
It is not that the people of Ontario are unconcerned. They were expressing that concern unabated on the local talk-show, the same day. But many were calling to get detail on how this would affect them personally, rather than with a fight in their belly. Essentially we have already surrendered, and are trying to cover up our privates from the approaching boot. We need to grow some backbone because this fight is not over until July 1. We need to bury Duncan’s phone lines (519 2515199 or 416 3250400) and the calls need to reflect our anger and disgust. Bury the e-mail lines dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org of all Liberal MPPs, and let them know in no uncertain terms that their job is forfeit if this is not stopped.
While you are doing that, keep in mind where the most harmful blows will land; gasoline prices and heating and cooling bills which were rising relentlessly already. And, remember; after July 1, this government will still be broke, and will need to increase that 13% tax, and they will because we just made it easier.
May 30th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Right on!! I am hoping that this will be one of the catalysts that results in the Ontario lemmings shaking off their complacency.
We all need to get really involved in the next election.
May 30th, 2010 at 8:09 am
Rick, people are sheep here in Ontario. The food service and hospitality industry is being driven to the brink of extinction, yet the owners have not united to denounce the HST.
May 30th, 2010 at 10:51 am
the average canadian has a seven day attention span for anything political. that would include taxes and any other thing done to them in the name of political progress. why do you think we have the monetary problems we have?
May 30th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
It’s going to be interesting to see how the government of B.C. weasels out of their responsibility to the citizens when they receive the petitions. I’m reminded of Stalin’s quote,”it’s not who gets the votes,it’s who counts them”.
I’m sure the Campbell government will find some “irregularities” in the process, and tell everyone they have to go back to the drawing board,so to speak, and the results of the current campaign will be invalidated.
We’re up to our necks in debt out here, and the Government
desperately needs the money. They’ve already sold off all the assets they could,read about the court proceedings on the BC Rail sale in your MSM. If water wasn’t such a Motherhood issue here, they’d probably sell that off too.
They WILL implement the HST,there’s no choice.If they DO decide to scrap the HST,they’ll have a backup plan to fleece even more money out of us via other taxes and fees.
We need a different set of politicians here in B.C., and the time is ripe for an alternative Party to make a showing in the next election campaign. The Conservatives seem to lack support and a charismatic Leader, and Bill Vanderzalm certainly isn’t going to have any success if he decides to take another run at politics.
We’re politically speaking, caught in all the places the old cliches warned us of,”a rock and a hard place”, the “devil and the deep blue sea”, “hell and high water”,etc. It ain’t much fun.
May 30th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I can’t believe my ears’n eyes, conservatives complaining that a tax is annoying. People, that is what we are all about - putting government taxing and spending right in the public’s face. Wage and salary taxes, and taxes on profit, are obscene; consumption taxes, just another expense to businesses, are ultimately the fairest and most accountable source for funding public spending.
May 30th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
dmorris: I agree that we are without a conservative alternative in BC but let’s give Campbell’s govt. some credit for making this province more business-friendly than the disastrous NDP. Stoopid stuff like the carbon tax, pay-before-you-pump and canoe licences are Liberalisms we could do without but at least we are able to earn a living. Yea, man is born to taxation as sparks fly … the HST is just a tax … and that’s yea, not yeah.
May 30th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
dollops: You are, along with a large percentage of Canadians, too easily willing to accept the scourge of rising taxes. Taxes are not a foregone conclusion, they are a result of governments efforts to buy your votes. Eventually that strategy leads them to a point where the bribes can no longer be paid by current revenues. It is we who are responsible for recognizing when we are being offered something which future generations will not be able to pay for. Canadians are far too lazy when confronted with that choice, and too reluctant to abandon their bribes. To see where that is taking us, have a look at Greece.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:43 pm
If we take your advice and pursue a path towards early retirement, who will the government tax to pay for its ever increasing deficit and annual budget? As a boomer myself I find myself conflicted with the thought of my children having to pay higher taxes to fund my early retirement. Dont we all, as Americans, have some shared responsibility to rescue our country from the decades of mismanagement? Or do we punch out early and suck what littles left in the coffers dry?
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