Good outcome! I don't know if the HST is an economically superior taxation system or not. Most economists think so - but given the extremely shaky state of the global ecomomy, how far can they be trusted?
Either way the bottom line for me was always the arrogantly dishonest way the Campbell government foisted the HST on us with no debate whatever. We just can't have our elected representatives telling us bald-faced lies and getting away with it. Gordon Campbell is gone and good riddance to him. But his replacement and many other Liberal pols are not much better. A real downside now is that the NDP will likely be elected. We need better choices.
We just can't have our elected representatives telling us bald-faced lies and getting away with it.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
I can't believe the number of other people (bloggers included) who disagree, though. They bought into the "it's too late now" and "well, it IS a better system anyway, so why not keep it?" arguments when that wasn't the real point at all. Sure, we're going to get the HST eventually and yes it's going to cost us a bit more now...but so what? We sent an important message today: don't lie to us.
Which is the real point.
ReplyDeleteFor far too long, politicians and bureaucrats have been able to ignore the Will of the People and impose whatever scheme takes their fancy or provides support to their cronies at our expense.
Canada has very weak provisions for the people to fight back, but today, in BC, the people won against the political class.
Don't think the political class hasn't learned from this, and expect a wholesale examination and revision of election laws, petition laws and other accountability mechanisms across every Canadian jurisdiction with the express intent of neutralizing them so another BC upset cannot happen in Canadian jurisdictions...
Fred, Thucy, Glad you agree. I've noticed too that lots don't. To add to Fred's list of reasons given - some have said something like "keep the HST and punish them in the next election". I think that's letting them off on the lie. Elections are won and lost on all kinds of issues of which the HST would just be one. It's like training pets (and I suppose children) - if you don't discipline them clearly and decisively and in a timely fashion they won't get the message.
ReplyDeleteAnd as Thucydides says the pols will be paying close attention to this result and adjusting their behaviour accordingly, both in BC and the ROC.
Lol you don't trust economists because the world economy is bad. That is so illogical that I giggled out loud. I don't trust dentists cuz ther are still cavities. And don't even get me started on doctors and disease.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood why Harper and Campbell shoved this federal tax on BC. I'm glad it was defeated.
To add to Fred's list of reasons given - some have said something like "keep the HST and punish them in the next election". I think that's letting them off on the lie.
ReplyDeleteIt's also exactly what they were counting on: four years to erase the memory (and anger) of being lied to. It's worked before, right?
I just don't get why they couldn't have been honest and up-front about the whole thing, and sold us on the merits of the HST *before* the election? Why the obvious charade, followed by the back-stabbing?
(oh, wait...the answer is right above: it's worked before.)
Proud to be a BCer today...:)
From what I understand the HST is a much better way to administer taxes. The problem with HST in BC, as it is ON, is that they taxed items that were not taxed under PST. They used it as a tax grab. All they had to do was only apply HST to the same items that were taxed under PST. Wasted millions now and somehow taxes will need to be raised. Go figure!!!
ReplyDeletePeople talk about economics like all economists agree with each other and are always right. Look, I have a Mathematical Economics degree and consider economics to be a glorified social science that involves a lot of assumptions and guessing. Everytime an economist is right about something, 10 more are wrong. The global economy is a complex "living" organism that nobody can 100% understand and predict.
ReplyDelete"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why what he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."
Thanks for the "insider" insights, Iceman. I wonder how many of your fellow economists would agree with you.
ReplyDelete