The topic of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is a quite unpopular one in British Columbia. It was introduced by Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell in late July and will be implemented mid-2010.
The British Columbia NDP is very much against Gordon Campbell’s HST and even has a petition site against it. The website explains,
Stop the HST
Gordon Campbell’s $4 billion tax hike is going to hit you hard.
The BC Liberals didn’t tell the truth about the HST.
Before the election, Campbell promised he wouldn’t impose a Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST. Shortly after election day he broke that promise, without any consultation.
Here is Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh’s ten-percenter against the HST. Dosanjh used to be the NDP leader in BC and even served as an NDP Premier in that province, but today he finds himself as a federal Liberal MP who narrowly squeaked by in the last election by 22 votes.
One can see what Dosanjh is doing. Instead of blaming the BC Liberals — the party that actually brought in the HST, and a party with which his federal party shares its name — Dosanjh is fabricating by telling his constituents by blaming the unpopular tax on his main threat: the federal Conservatives.
But is it truthful Mr. Dosanjh? Hopefully more than 22 people will know better next time around.
UPDATE: If you’re wondering what Dosanjh’s colleagues in the federal Liberal party have said about the idea of the HST, here’s a sample:
“We support harmonization, but that’s not the problem.
…
“The issue is deal by deal federalism with the provinces. We have no criticism of the provincial government’s budget. We think it’s a courageous budget in difficult circumstances. Our criticism is with Harper’s let’s make a deal federalism, which seems to me to put strains on the federation” — Michael Ignatieff (CTV Newsnet, March 27, 2009)
John McCallum, the party’s finance critic, was asked what he thought of the deal after Question Period and replied that it is “absolutely what the doctor ordered for the economy.” (National Post, March 27, 2009)