This HST referendum has me baffled. I didn’t know how I should vote but then I heard it’s good for business and considering our local businesses and all they do for our community I decided the HST must be good. So, yes, I will vote for it. However after discussing the matter with my neighbours they told me that “yes” means “no” and “no” means “yes.” Really? “Yup,” they said. “That’s the way it works.” OK, that’s confusing. So you can imagine my excitement when I received the HST Referendum Voter’s Guide in the mail. I stopped right there by my post office box and read it. This handy dandy guide says the HST is good for business in one place and bad for the economy in another. One page it states the HST protects jobs and the next page says the HST harms consumption. Then there are statements like the commentary from the yes side on the no side and the commentary from the no side on the yes side. I just wish I could figure out which side is which.
My final hope was the postal strike/lockout. You see I figured if I didn’t receive the HST ballot in the mail I could leave all this behind me. But lo and behold the postal workers are so efficient the ballots are getting through anyway (better give those folks a raise). Now I hear postal employees may be ordered back to work so I will actually have to make a decision.
OK, as far as I understand, yes means no and no means yes, or is it the other way around? I don’t know. As you can see this HST referendum has me befuddled and if the darned thing was not so critically important I would borrow a term from Pierre Trudeau and just say “fuddle duddle.”
Nancy Cooper
