Harper Sales Tax (HST) Summed Up Nicely
I was reading the letters to the editor in the Toronto Star this morning and one Dan Skrobot of Toronto succinctly and perfectly described the Harper Sales Tax [square bracket additions are mine]:
Isn’t the HST just more Conservative downloading? Mike Harris still haunts us, but this time with the protege Jim Flaherty pulling the strings of a desperate Ontario government. The lesson here is who gets what in this deal, and why all the pieces in the Conservative puzzle are starting to fit into place. Harper and Flaherty first decide to buy our votes with a GST cut [of which we got no benefit except an unprecedented deficit], then a home reno tax cut [which has only served the purpose of people who can afford renovations], and billions more in stimulus spending to the point of no return in structural deficits [which has somehow translated to the largest marketing campaign for a government ever seen on this planet]. The only answer is to increase taxes, but if tax cuts equal votes, then the reverse doesn’t fir their master plan, so they turn to struggling provinces to raise the tax for them. Harris-style mismanagement of our finances, plus a desperate Ontario willing to accept a bribe ($4.5 billion) to raise taxes means lower provincial transfers down the road, leaving more for the Conservatives to clean up their fiscal mess or buy more votes. The brilliant part is that Harper’s ethically challenged party will be rewarded and Dalton McGuinty’s patsies will be sent packing.
I’ve said all along that the provinces should avoid anything that the Cons offer to them to make the HST work. Why? Because you simply can’t trust a Con that offers money. It’s not in their DNA to give money, but to take away.
I’ve also said many times that the Harper Sales Tax will create tectonic rifts between all Liberals in the country, particularly in BC and Ontario, as they wrestle with the conundrum of rapidly rising deficits and short-term monetary offers to do the evil work of the Harper Regime.