Recalling the H.S.T.

As usual we British Columbians are all in a dither and, also as usual, I don't know for sure what is causing it. Is it the mountains, the ocean, or just the general ambiance of the place? Hard to say for sure but if I were a betting man, and I am not, then I would say it was just the usual politicalness of the place. As those who follow this sort of thing will remember, the L.O.G. (Liberal Occupying Government) in Victoria recently inflicted the Harmonized Sales Tax on the province. This is a harmonization of the Provincial Sales Tax and the federal Goods and Services Tax. In other words the tax is merely the combination of the PST and the GST, it does not go up or down at this point but it does put taxes on many items that were not taxed by the PST previously (I have written about this before [blog June 15, 2010] but to see the complete list for yourself go to http://hst.blog.gov.bc.ca where with a minimum of searching you will find a .pdf put out by the government telling how the tax will change what one pays for some items). I for one don't like it, but that is me and I have never been voted into office of any kind, so what do I know?

Now big Bill Vander Zalm has been voted into political office (as premier of British Columbia back in the long ago) and thusly may know something about these sorts of things, and big Bill is against the HST as well. Now way back I didn't like Bill, politically. He always reminded me of Ronny Reagan from the US of A, a complete dickwad when he had any power but probably a pretty nice guy in person, probably. But that was then and this is now, Ronny is dead and Bill is fomenting unrest against the L.O.G. and the HST. Good on yer, Bill. So after the HST became the law of the province Bill sez, (and I am paraphrasing here) "Let us use the recall law of the great Province of British Columbia to toss some of those Liberal sons of bitches out of office." The Liberals, being brave of heart and strong of smell, stood their ground fearlessly and said, (once again I am paraphrasing) "We are a bunch of lying, cowardly creeps and so we will allow the suckers, I mean, the good citizens of this province to vote in a non-binding referendum as to whether we should keep the HST or not. This non-binding referendum will cost about $ 30-million and will be held in a year (September 2011), so quit scaring us." They soon said that the referendum would be "binding" rather than "non-binding", which is still pretty meaningless since they will challenge every signature on every recall sign-up sheet, but it looks good in the media, and this is where we stand at the moment. Bill and the anti-HST forces have announce the names of the Liberal MLAs they will be going after using the Survivor tag-line, "vote them off the island" (Victoria is on Vancouver Island, get it?) and the Liberals trying, pathetically, to make this into some sort of game-show thing, "I would have thought the future of the province and the economy would be more important than a game", saying one. Way to try to change the message there, buddy. Better luck next time.

Now here, for better or worse, is my humble take on the whole situation. As the Liberals have been telling us for the past year how important the HST is to the future of the province's economic health, why not just leave it in place? Just say that a majority of the voters of the province voted them into power to lead, and they are going to lead, and as leaders they are going to keep the HST whether the voters like it or not. Call it tough love or whatever. Then when the next provincial election rolls around they can run on the success of the HST, pointing to the economic powerhouse that BC will be at the time and to the .00001% provincial unemployment rate. There'll be pot in every chicken and every garage will have two cars in it and the main problem that every citizen of the province will have will be on how to spend all the extra money they have in their pockets. Why, I bet they would win hands down, then their fearless leader (Gord "the weasel" Campbell) could retire to a lavish island in the Gulf Islands where he could spend his days working on his tan and his evenings dictating his memoirs. Go big or go home is the phrase I think.

Unfortunately the Liberals have decided to take another tack and are now spending their time hiding under rocks and stuff, which on one hand may be the right move, but I doubt it. Of course I have never run for political office and I still have the quaint notion that politicians are there to lead, not to follow. Heh, heh, how old fashioned is that? Still, one does at time wish that a politician would rise to the occasion and be a leader. Maybe next year.

Anyway... Humouroceros