Many British Columbians have already marked their X to extinguish the HST or save it from extinction. Congratulations to them for having already waded through the gobbledegook being trotted out by both sides, and for having waded through all the instructions Elections BC sent with the ballot.
For those still trying to make up their minds, good luck.
The tax talk long ago went from being a logical discussion of the HST鈥檚 merits or faults. It has now digressed into political rhetoric.
Debate has divided along party lines. It didn鈥檛 begin that way with former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm taking up the cause against the HST鈥檚 introduction by the BC Liberals.
The New Democrats were slow to take up the cause. But when the public got angry after finding out the HST meant paying an extra seven per cent tax on stuff they hadn鈥檛 been taxed on before the NDP jumped on the bandwagon.
It sure appears they did so out of political expediency. Instead of working to find a way to tweak the tax to make it fair, the NDP realized by amping up the animosity they might be able to capitalize by using the issue to take down the Liberals in the next election.
The Liberals, on the other hand, became stubborn in their unwillingness to tweak the tax until the Fight HST movement got too strong to ignore.
Now they鈥檙e bending the rules with the so-called 鈥榠ndependent鈥� government ads from hstinbc.ca. The commercials note the province has promised to lower the HST from 12 to 10 per cent, but blatantly neglect to point out it won鈥檛 drop to 11 per cent until July 1, 2012 and not to 10 per cent until July 1, 2014.
The whole sad exercise鈥攊ncluding those annoying suppertime 鈥榯own hall鈥� phone calls from both parties鈥攈as left most British Columbians with their heads spinning trying to separate rhetoric from valid points.
That鈥檚 a task they should have been spared from.
