I don’t know if I’m a lone voice here or not … but there’s only one reason (well, maybe two or three) why I will vote against the HST come the referendum.
Mostly, I still resent the lying, deceitful way that the HST was shoved down our collective throats without any kind of public debate or attempt to educate us about its benefits, at least in a way that the average taxpayer could understand.
Had the government had the foresight to explain the benefits more fully, or offer in the first place the kind of concessions with which they are now trying to placate us (running scared, are they?), then the HST might have stood a chance.
Instead, during one of the worst recessions in recent memory, a tax is imposed for no good reason that I can figure out and that results in my already-limited disposable income dwindling even more.
Oh wait, that’s right — the HST will help corporations and businesses. Let me get this straight — a tax no individual taxpayer wants or can afford is imposed, resulting in the average consumer having less to spend buying the goods and services of companies and businesses that are supposedly going to benefit from that very tax? How, exactly, does that stimulate the economy?
When their business starts to shrink (because we consumers have less to spend) and the bottom lines of those companies and businesses start to show the impact of this ill-conceived tax, then maybe the idiots in power will get it (I live in naive hope).
And my second and third reasons for voting no to the HST despite the frenzied and transparent 11th hour promises from the politicians? (2) You’ve lied before. (3) You’re lying now.
Lenore Leitch
Qualicum Beach
