“Leadership requires for people to be up front.” [1]
Gordon Campbell, Premier of B.C. during televised debate.
Was Gordon Campbell “upfront” before the election about bringing in the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)? I believe the answer is NO. So what kind of “leadership” are we getting from this guy?
Journalist, Kent Spencer, in the Province newspaper of July 28, 2009 said,
“The Liberals provided written statements during the spring campaign to restaurant owners and home builders that they had ‘no plans’ to implement the controversial HST.” [2]
Journalist, Michael Smyth writing in the Province of August 9, 2009 in his article headlined, “How a GST rebel turned into the HST thief” wrote this,
“Remember back when Gordon Campbell was a tax-fighter? The guy who said your money was better off in your own pocket than in the slush funds of government?
Now he's the guy who loves the GST so much that he's merging our provincial sales tax with it and slamming it on dozens of PST-exempt goods and services….
Oh, how the worm has turned! Now he is the tax-grabbing politician turning a deaf ear to the people.”[3]
I believe he is doing more than “turning a deaf ear to the people,” he is going to confiscate more of our hard earned money and savings. But hey, we are told it’s “revenue neutral.” Yeah sure, there is nothing “neutral’ about another tax grab by tax hungry, less than truthful politicians. Why did he not have the courage to bring this HST before the people during the election campaign? Was he afraid he would be defeated? Did he care more about deceiving the people to get their vote, rather than being honest with them on the election trail?
Journalist Tom Fletcher writing in the Abbotsford News of August 12, 2009 had this to say, “Much has been written about Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s bald-faced effort to convince voters that they had a sudden conversion to a harmonized sales tax after the election. This is just as believable as Hansen’s last fart in the elevator….” [4]
I believe this harmonized tax smells of polluted politics, and the people getting suffocated are the taxpayers of BC. We need a mechanism to rid us of untrustworthy politicians who say one thing then do another. Politicians should have to sign a conditions of employment, and if they violate it, they should be instantly dismissed. Waiting four years for another election should not be an option. If you deceived your employer at work you would be fired on the spot; therefore, the people should be able to fire politicians when they deceive them. They are supposed to serve the people, but instead make the people into tax paying serfs. HST may be the name politicians call it to make it sound nice, but the people are not in agreement with it. The real name of this regressive tax is Hit the Suckers Tax (HST) and people are fed up being played for suckers by deceitful politicians.
Stephen J. Gray
August 16, 2009.
Endnotes:
[1] http://www.straight.com/article-218179/ndps-carole-james-delivers-spellbinding-performance-leaders-debate
[2] http://www.theprovince.com/news/Liberals+they+didn+break+promise+just+changed+their+minds/1834571/story.html
[3] ] http://www.theprovince.com/travel/rebel+turned+into+thief/1875052/story.html
[4] http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/abbynews/opinion/53072607.html
