Do your HST research first

If you have an opinion about the looming HST referendum, I hope you have done some research on the subject before you send in your mail-in ballot.

If you have an opinion about the looming HST referendum, I hope you have done some research on the subject before you send in your mail-in ballot.

We all realize the current government has raised the question in a somewhat convoluted way …although why this sort of practice from Victoria or Ottawa or city hall still seems to surprise people I can’t imagine.  The bottom line is educate yourselves.

Far too many people jumped on the anti-HST (read “anti-Campbell”) bandwagon way too quickly to have actually done any meaningful reading on the subject.

The NDP says it’s bad so it must be bad.

I can sympathize with partisan politics but Bill Vander Zalm?   Seriously?

I’m sure many of the anti-HST (read “anti-Campbell” again) folks would have rejoiced seeing Mr. Vander Zalm publicly stoned to death back in his day as premier.

I bet they would have happily paid 14 per cent HST on the stones and not blinked an eye.

How quickly we forget. Just for fun and your own peace of mind, check out an informative YouTube video by UBC law student Chris Thompson and see if it spurs you to do more research. I was on the fence about this for quite a while but this video — a seemingly factual 15-minute essay — was definitely intriguing.

I read more on the subject. I read still more and now I have made up my mind. Voting against the Liberal-introduced tax simply because you are opposed to Gordon Campbell is not good enough, folks.

For all the professed enlightenment from the anti-Liberal camp in B.C. there seems to be a lot of (no offence to the visually challenged) blind leading the blind. Bill Vander Zalm? Seriously?

I once caught the ceremonial first pitch on opening day of the Newton Little League from Big Bad Bill when he was mayor of Surrey — I can’t remember exactly what year — but little about the man has changed. His pitch is still just as bad … low and way outside.

Dean Fulton is a freelance columnist for the Tribune and local musician.

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