Sun Media - Can't read a whole press release - they get it wrong for RIGHT reasons?

The HST is adding a great deal to the heating bills for people in Ontario and BC. In Ontario the bill has actually gone up 17% due to the increased profit margin granted to electricity providers. The Ontario provincial NDP are asking that the Premier remove the 8% provincial portion from the hydro bill in order to help many low and middle income families cope. To date the request has fallen on deaf ears.

Federally, the NDP Leader Jack Layton has asked Prime Minister Harper, to reduce the HST on heating bills. Being the ever right wing protagonist, Brian Lilley at Eye On the Hill, a SUN media blog, came out with a story today with only half the facts, stating that Jack Layton was a Climate Change denier.

Lilley conveniently failed to read all of Jack's media release. Layton calls for reducing the HST and measures to assist people retrofit their homes to assist in reducing heating costs. You can read Brian's misrepresentation here and Jack's press release here.

Revolution in BC

Are you ready for the first major revolution in Canada since Trudeau came to Parliament Hill Canada? BC is in the middle of a terrible fire season and its not just trees that are burning. The BC Liberals are falling faster than folks taking a bungee jump off the Naniamo bridge. The funny aspect to this is that the Liberals choose to dive off the bridge with additional weight attached. Some people could have told them that the weight would make it impossible to bounce back but they knew better.

The Liberals friends in Big Business told them it was worth it. After all they, big business would reap almost $1.9 billion in extra profits if it were to happen. It was the least the Liberals could do for them after receiving in excess of $400,000 in donations from the the big boys. Oddly enough, the rest of us will pay $1.8 billion more. It would have been easier for the Libs to stick their hands into our pockets, purses, wallets and piggy banks and then hand it over to big business. No they felt they needed to tell us we would all be better off with the new tax.

The amazing thing about this is that The Libs likely would not be plunging head first to bedrock, were it not for the fact thye mislead, I mean lied, to the people of BC in the first place. They waited until after they were safely elected to put the sting in place. We're talking HST. The HST they stated they were not thinking about before they election when asked. The HST they had planned to implement, the minute they were re-elected to a majority government.

Of course the majority government might not have been so big were they honest about the budget. You know the BC Liberals have won a ton of elections simply by saying the NDP would spend us into a deep hole. So they lied about the deficit in 2009. They said it would be $495 million. Again, safely elected, they show the budget deficit was really almost four times that amount. I have to look it up, but I dare say the BC Liberals have beat the NDP in the area of debt growth. Biggest deficits in BC history.

Back to the HST, seems to me the Libs have one choice for survival. Dump the tax. Now they are not likely to do that. Big Business would punish them beyond our imaginations. No they will continue. At least some of them will continue. The rest will be recalled or in fear of recall, will abandon the Liberal party. They will form a rump party in the Legislature, pretend they never liked the idea and we will see the rise of the Social Credit party again, to keep the Socialists from getting through the gates again.

My bet on the first MLA to be recalled... Donna Barnett of the Cariboo (Williams Lake and 100 Mile House). She can resign as a Liberal, but in her case, the people have another MLA in waiting, he's NDP but most people know him as a Wyse man!

Campbell's HST - Liberal nightmare

Oh my, its going to happen. BC has recall and initiative legislation. The only place in Canada to have it, yet the bar is very high. The people are going to force Premier Campbell to hold a province wide referendum or a vote in the legislature on the HST.

Premier Campbell has made this initiative an easy sell. Bill VanderZalm is leading an effort to force the government to rescind its plan to harmonize the GST with the PST. People don't like it and are fighting back.

Fight HST campaign organizers say they have signed up the minimum 10% of registered voters in 72 ridings. That leaves 13 to go before July 5th for their petition to succeed.

(HST- Savings) + (7.5% LCBO) = no savings

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, who insists most companies will pass along any reduced costs from the HST to Ontarians, said it would be reckless to lower prices on beer, wine and spirits.  - The Spec.com


Reckless!  My god, if there was one way the Libs could have turned a few folks around to being at least "indifferent" it was the lower cost of beer and wine as a result of the HST coming to be.  The Ontario Government has ensured that its big business, The LCBO, will not pass savings onto you and me...


Now of course we can expect Ontario's other big businesses to pass along savings to the consumer.  

RIGHT! 

HST Petition approved in BC

Elections BC announced today, that the application from former BC Premier Vander Zalm, to start a petition in opposition of the incoming sales tax, had been approved.

An initiative to end the harmonized sales tax (HST) will hit the streets April 6, 2010.

Voter in BC will get a chance to sign a petition against the HST beginning April 6, 2010. The petition must be completed in the next 90 days.

The BC petition, if it gets enough signatures will go to a province wide vote. It requires a simple majority to win. A win however does not compel the government to take the advice of the voters. Still, I like the idea of Gordon Campbell and the Liberal Party saying no. Just another darn good reason to send them packing!

Unfortunately for us here in Ontario, that vote won't happen here. Seems Mr. McGuinty knows what's best for all of us.

HST for the record....

"... We need another way. This harmonization of the GST, this tax collusion between provincial and federal Liberal governments, is not the way to reverse the economic decline of this country...."

Who said this in 1996? Not the New Democrats, Not the LPC Government, no it was Stephen Harper MP from Calgary West.

h/t to Blogging a dead horse

Put your Right foot in

Yes I know there has been lots of posts about Iggy doing the two step. You know, step over here, say this, step over there, say the opposite.

Its tough being the AIR Apparent. You have to say so many things to get elected. Its does however appear that the Liberal leader will keep the commitment made by the Tories in Ottawa and The LIBcons in Queens Park to harmonize the sales taxes. Its really not fair for Iggy to call it Harper's Sales tax in BC anymore. That is what he has been doing as the TAX is not going over well out there.

Here in Ontario, it different, people here have rolled over. So Iggy went to meet some business folks the other day and decided there are more votes here than in BC so he won't change the HST. That is going to cost him in BC.

As for Ontario, the longer we wait for an election the worse it looks for the Liberals. To add insult to more red faced LPCers, they may have handed the NDP a big repeat victory in Quebec with the Pontifical one himself, (that's Iggy) declaring he will anoint a woman to run in Outremont. I can hardly wait.

Till then try out this tune (note its always a "right foot")

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about.
You do the Iggy shuffle
And you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.

- Kelly McParland: Liberals do the Iggy Shuffle on sales tax

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

Yeppers, you read that right. Colin Hansen, BC's Robber Minister went into an election knowing the Province's projected deficit of $495 million was way out to lunch, yet he repeatedly said that the number was good.

Seems the deficit number was good for one thing only, the re-election of Gordon Campbell and his team of con artists. We don't have all the numbers yet but it won't be long before we do. A new budget is coming down in a few weeks.

We know now that Hansen must have known the budget target was not going to be met because Welfare numbers were soaring. In fact welfare numbers were going so high, the public relations Bureau (read govt PR hacks) told Social Services it could not post welfare numbers until after the election. That's bad news on two fronts. First the province is paying out more money and second the province is not getting any tax revenue from the people it is paying welfare too.

Next we have The Robber Minister telling the media today that income tax revenue is down a billion and royalties and stumpage are down another billion give or take a couple 100 million. Add to that the 400 million spent on Forest fires and we easily have a 3 billion plus deficit.

Then there are the Olympic costs that we haven't seen yet. Surely they will come in way over budget. The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre expansion has come in at double the original cost estimates. All I can say is that its a good thing these Liberals can mange money so well. Imagine what it would be like if they were worse at it than they tell us they are?

Now the fun stuff. It seems Robber Minister got a call from the big Robber Minister in Ottawa right after the election. The Ottawa Robber Minister had the BC Robber Minister over the barrel. See, Ottawa knew BC was in big financial doo-doo. So according to Gordon Campbell Ottawa said, "Hey BC, here is 1.5 billion buckaroos (that's what Harper calls dollars), bet you can use that right now." Harper was right of course and the deal was so easy, all BC had to do was sign onto a new tax.

You know most of the story after that. The HST is coming as a result of either a quick urgent decision that would not allow for public consultations and or the result of outright lying during the election. The BC Campbell Libcons in their effort to "Keep BC Strong" brought in a big new tax on the spur of the moment or they negotiated it for some time and felt voters didn't need to bother with it until after they voted.

BC, guess what?
You have been
Hoodwinked, Sucker-punched and Tattooed.

see also...

NO BC HST

Raphael Alexander: The dog ate my reason for introducing the HST

One Way We Can Say 'No!' to the HST

Ontario sleeps, BC Boils

Biggest Tax Shift in BC History: Why Did Campbell Do It?

HST opponents launch campaign to stop the tax

Critic says Tourism BC's closure a matter of control

Sometimes you can re-invent yourself

Sometimes you can re-invent yourself

Bill VanderZalm to the rescue... What? You're kidding right?

all I can add is Campbell LIBcons are really screwing up when this happens...

Ontario sleeps, BC Boils

Ontario sleeps, BC Boils

Have Ontario folks simply accepted that the HST (GST and RST) is a done deal? Out in BC considerable effort is being made to do something to stop The BC Liberal government from moving ahead with the Harper Strangling Tax (HST).

In Ontario, the Progressive Conservatives said they will change it if elected. The NDP have rolled out a petition. Neither effort is gaining much headway. Its as if McGuinty knows we're a bunch of saps and even if we don't like it, what the heck are you going to do about it? Queens Park has decided!

Lots of things are going to cost more, yet the McGuintyGovernment can't or won't tell us how much and what will be costing more. They have released some info on increased costs, things like heating fuel, electricity, gasoline, tobacco, taxi fares, lawyers' fees, haircuts will be taxed at 13 per cent instead of five. Then there are funerals and maintenance work on condominiums not on the Ontario government released effects which will go up in price. Home renovations are going to be hit with the new tax as will almost anything defined as a service.

If you go to the PC sponsored petition site, they have listed things scheduled to cost more including, camp fees, propane, kids dance lessons, summer camps, coffee, magazines and fast food.

Now the NDP have a little more info on what will cost more under the planned HST. You can sign petition there to voice your disapproval of the unfair tax.

Why all the lack of motivation here in Ontario? The Progressive Conservatives have a Facebook group opposed to what they are calling the DST, Dalton Sales Tax. The group has only 532 members! Whats up with that?

The NDP Facebook group is doing better with some 1459 members. That's a far cry from the almost 100,000 members opposed to the HST in BC on Facebook.

Its a little disconcerting to see my new home province lacking any kind of fight to the coming of the Harper Strangling Tax. Maybe it's the fact that in BC you can recall a provincial MLA (MPP in Ontario). Maybe it is that in BC voters can put an initiative on a ballot.

Perhaps what is even more upsetting is that McGuinty and Campbell are being bought off by Harper. It certainly lends credence to the idea that any politician has a price and Harper is playing that game very well in two provinces he needs to win the next election.

To make matters even more muddy, NDP Premier of Manitoba Gary Doer is also looking at accepting the Harper government's bribe money.

The HST is a big tax shift. It will see government coffers grow and people paying more. David Schreck has a good article here on the issue at The Tyee.

I would put up the official Ontario government links to the change but they are a little hard to find. Try it yourself.

To follow the BC anti HST movement check in on Bill Tieleman's blog regularly.

Campbell and McGuinty

Campbell and McGuinty

Two premiers leading uninspiring governments decide to to take federal cash

Generally a cool thing to do, but not when it has this affect...

HST is bringing on recall talk in Canada's only Recall state.

Facebook anti HST site could lead to recall effort as they gather names

Only in BC, pity it can't happen in Ontario.

Campbell was told it would not be good