Editor: The HST referendum vote count has found that a very small majority of those who cast ballots voted against the HST. Thus, the HST is eventually going to be dead and buried. But the matter is not truly over, and perhaps never will be. Now comes the blame game.

Effective immediately, everything that occurs involving B.C.鈥檚 economy that even just slightly tilts towards the negative (such as a budget deficit), perhaps even the odd act of God such as lightning taking out an electrical power grid for a couple hours, will be blamed on all of those anti-HST voters who simply refused to be adequately 鈥�(re-)educated鈥� about all those juicy good things that a firmly-entrenched HST would shower all over all British Columbians.

Of course, many would acknowledge that the blame game would go the other way around, had the pro-HST voters won the day, as  they almost did. However, one cannot claim that the blame game would automatically be reversed.

The mainstream news media could not be relied upon to accurately reflect anti-HST sentiments and reasoning in the case of a pro-HST win, especially in regards to the formidable negative effects on middle and low income B.C.ers. and the multiple billions in additional annual profits that all 鈥� including news media 鈥� corporations would enjoy, as a major portion of the corporate tax burden would be shifted upon those who can least afford it.

I鈥檓 convinced of such news media bias, for even as the Liberal government in effect allocated itself and other pro-HST forces a $7-million-plus budget (almost all of which went towards blatantly biased 鈥渘on-partisan HST information鈥�), while granting the anti-HST forces a relatively paltry $250,000.

Nonetheless, virtually all of B.C.鈥檚 newspapers, especially The Vancouver Sun and Province, maintained a deafening silence on this blatant injustice.

Frank G. Sterle, Jr.,

White Rock