To the Editor:
I am going to vote yes to extinguish the HST, not just because it was designed to transfer more than their share of the tax burden onto the workforce but also because it began with deceit and lives on in deceit, and I object to deceit.
B.C. has the authority to reduce the PST by two per cent but needs to successfully renegotiate with Stephen Harper on July 1, 2012, and 2014 to reduce the HST. Why does it cost so much to return to a system that was working for so many years? Did they lay off the staff and sell the companies as the storm was developing in the hope it would blow over in a year or two?
I also object to being threatened, especially by the people elected to represent us. It could be called the carrot and stick system. Or it could be the old “If I can’t be at bat all the time, I’ll take my bat and ball and go home” trick. But to tell us that if they can’t have their HST they will then charge us $1.5 billion has to be just as childish.
The BC Liberals called themselves Liberals while the federal Liberals were riding high. Christy Clark now wants to admit they are really conservative by renaming the party appropriately. Which name is deceitful? And why do they now want to be called conservatives?
For about 30 years, right-wing governments have been shifting the tax burden down and widening the gap between the haves and have-nots, so Christy will certainly find ways to move that process forward, HST or no HST, but let’s not make it easy for them. Vote yes.
Have you heard? Child poverty has hit 12 per cent in B.C. That’s the eighth year in a row B.C. has led that way in Canada and in two per cent above whoever is second. B.C. is a wonderful place but the BC Liberals had nothing to do with it.
A common strategy used by companies in negotiating with unions is to demand the union reps take each offer to the members so the company can feel its way to a 52 per cent approval. Polls are doing that job for Christy Clark. She tried to sweeten the pot until the polls told her the no vote hit 52 per cent and she could keep the HST. Then she could have three years to figure out how to get that two per cent back.
Bill Bennett writes they have heard us loud and clear. Why must we always be telling them what’s right and what’s wrong?
Peter Ross
Canyon