With the HST referendum upon us I hear many people angrily proclaim that they’re voting to get rid of it — not because they think it’s a “bad” tax, necessarily, or that we’d be better off spending the extra money to go back to the good old PST, or that they’d really rather pay 7% on not-quite-everything instead of 5% on a different not-quite-everything — but because of well-earned outrage about how it came about, or because they think the government ads are non-neutral, or such, and, Dammit!, they’re “gonna teach ’em a lesson!”
Sadly, this amounts to poking themselves in the eye with a sharp stick. Yeah! That’ll show ’em! Damn gummint! Serve ’em Right!
And then, as we all swagger along with one eye, “the gummint” will simply do as we’ve so stridently demanded, and tax us the difference. Fixed ’em proper, I’d say! Please.
If you think, as I do, that despite how it came about once the dust settles we’ll be better off for it, then join me in voting “No.”
But if you really think the HST is bad for business, or bad for BC, or just bad for you, by all means vote “Yes” to extinguish it. Fair enough, just be sure you know what you’re asking for.
But, please, by all reason, don’t do it to “get back” at anyone. It’s just you and your neighbours at the sharp end of that stick.
