- poster courtesy WeAreChange Vancouver Another new Ipsos Reid poll shows that the Harmonized Sales Tax is deeply hated in British Columbia, with 82% of those surveyed saying they oppose the HST, with 61% "strongly opposed".
And 91% think it will hurt the economy by negatively impacting consumer spending.
The poll also shows that only 12% of British Columbians feel they know a great deal about the HST and 27% say they know little or nothing about the HST, which is scheduled to be imposed on July 1, 2010.
Just 12% support implementing the HST and a mere 2% strongly support it - the position of BC Premier Gordon Campbell, Finance Minister Colin Hansen and the BC Liberal caucus.
Ipsos Reid Senior Vice-President John Wright says the HST backlash has decidedly hurt the BC Liberals, who are currently 11% to 14% behind the BC NDP opposition in recent polling.
"It's clear the impact on the BC government has been direct," Wright said.
The poll also shows strong opposition to the HST in Ontario, where the Conservative Party has a new 11% lead over the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty, which is also imposing an HST next year. 74% of Ontarians are against the tax, Ipsos Reid reports.
Meanwhile, BC NDP leader Carole James heads to Ottawa Monday for a news conference with federal NDP leader Jack Layton and Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath to reinforce opposition to the HST and tell BC Conservative and Liberal MPs to vote "no" in the upcoming final vote on the HST.
And more than 2,000 people have joined my new Facebook protest group Defeat the HST in Parliament - to send a message to MPs about this week's HST vote - sign up today!
It's a good time to do so, as federal Liberal MPs start talking about getting rid of leader Michael Ignatieff over his mishandling of the HST - a potential game-changer for the hapless Grits until they surrendered without firing a shot.
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20 comments:
Bill, the most recent public opinion poll was released Friday with both the Liberals and NDP in a slump:
http://threehundredeight.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-british-columbia-provincial-poll.html
And Carole going to Ottawa? If BC'ers tune Carole out how the hell will she have any credibility in Ottawa?
Hi Bill
I just read the article on Carole going to Ottawa. The comments were interesting. Especially the fool who said "if Carole is against it I'm for it"
Do these people think before they speak? Carole is taking the wishes of 910 out of every thousand people in BC to Ottawa. What is premier photo op doing? Getting set to ram this down our throats like everything else he does.
And I personally am convinced that big business got to Iggy. They've told him en masse they will pull their support if they vote against the government.
It's time to take back our lives. Write your MP's. There is a list at my place http://howbadthe record.blogspot.com
Iggy's decision to betray "us" is based on the fact "he is not us," Iggy sees himself as a higher-form-of-life, an attitude shared by other self-created Grit elitists like BC's David Anderson & Stephen Owen.
Yes, the corporate-end is pushing the Grits but more likely on Iggy's team of "Young Toronto Lawyers In Love" and those certain MPs known to be always On The Take.
For Iggy the HST is just an academic exercise, its impact is no more important to him than disecting a frog in biology class.
Iggy isn't a crook, Iggy is just Iggy being his royal intellectual self . . . just as David Anderson refused for seven years to accept that there was any truth to BC's leaking condo crisis.
Do you cry when you step on an ant, then should Iggy and the ivory tower crowd cry for your HST burden?
The GREAT SATAN
Trot out as many bank and right-wing economists as the Conliberals and their media friends want. Canadians know a tax grab when they see it.
The Harper Sales Tax is the greatest tax shift from corporations onto individuals in our history.
The corporations will pass on their increased corporate profits in the form of decreased prices -Oh yeah!
Provincial government ability to influence healthy livng, environmentally sensible purchases, and socially desirable action will be all but lost. Even Carol Taylor knew that.
No wonder neither Campbell nor McGuinty raised the spectre of the HST during their most recent provincial elections.
The HST is a stealth tax. Jack Layton and Carole James understand it.
Bill,
Taxes, especially new taxes, are very easy political targets.
Tell me the last time a poll revealed resounding support for a new tax, be it an NDP, Con, Lib or Campbell tax?
You are polling the obvious knee-jerk public reaction to a new tax. Once this tax shakes down, citizens in BC will forget 4 months after the fact what it was exactly they were angry about with respect to the HST.
If we devised our tax policies based on opinion polls, we would ZERO taxes and we'd all think like Maureen Bader - god forbid!! None of those great social democratic rights and services you and I so cherish would exist.
Your infatuation with the HST seems like little more than crass pandering to general anti-tax sentiment that tends exists in all of us.
Rather than axing the HST wholesale, how about adding a constructive criticism, as in how we caqn make it better and more fair; your chances in this tactic would seem much more realistic in the long-run.
Anonymous 10:35 a.m. makse some interesting points.
First - the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and its BC director Maureen Bader are NOT fighting the HST - they support it. Why? Because despite their name, the CTF mostly advocates on behalf of big business.
Check their website front page and you'll see "Climategate" and a debt clock but not the HST, the biggest transfer of wealth from consumers to big business we've ever seen!
As to "infatuation" with the HST, my business will be negatively impacted by the terrible tax - I'm personally incented.
On being constructive - the HST has to go - it cannot be "fixed" as some people mistakenly believe - without hurting consumers and an economy in recession.
Green Party leader Jane Sterk and others who say don't apply the HST to currently PST-exempt goods and services - like consulting fees - are not being realistic. That will not happen.
I've got a theroy.
Corporations "lend" money to the Liberals to pay for their election campaign. The Liberals pay back the money with tax breaks worth more than the loan. So that the Liberals aren't out the cash... they now come to the "Average Joe" and tell us that we have to make up for the short fall.
In otherwords... I'm paying for the Liberals election campaign and will get a tax bill instead of a tax deductable receipt! As for the corportations... they get a great return on their money.
Got to admit... That's original!!!
Tieleman. HST won't hurt your business. It's the product you produce that will. Cut services and reduce taxes. There's your answer.
Anonymous 12:15 p.m. - are you crazy? I am a consultant. My clients currently pay a 5% GST on my fees.
Under HST they will pay a 12% HST on the same fees - the 5% GST they used to pay plus an additional 7% - what used to be the PST.
The work I do is identical. The tax they pay goes up 7%.
If they cannot increase their budgets for my services, they cut my work by 7%.
And the "inputs" in my business are pens and paper and a new computer every few years - which is already a tax deductible business cost.
Figure it out.
You didn't get the joke Tielemen? Peter was saying your product sucks and that's why you can't be successful. With or without HST. "It's the product that you produce" that makes a business thrive or fail. It's a poor businessman who blames everybody but themselves. Produce a better product Tieleman and then you might not lose any business. I agree with those that say cut more services. If people don't want to pay taxes, cut all services.
Jethro - I've been in business for 12 years - what do you do for a living?
What sucks is a government that lied about the HST to two different business groups before the election and that is afraid of even consulting the public about the HST, let alone giving them a vote!
You BC Liberal supporters had better sharpen up if that's the best you can do.
Do you ever get the feeling that Liberals with nothing better to do and probably sitting in some office in Victoria are writing such statements as " Anonymous said...Taxes, especially new taxes, are very easy political targets." These individuals have not been paying attention for let's say the last 30 years & more. Do they not pay attention to the millions & in some cases billions of dollars wasted by all levels of government. Yes the HST is simply a Tax grab. Government needs to pay off it's ridiculous & sometimes criminal debts it has accrued over the years. It has nothing to do with paying for " great social democratic rights and services you and I so cherish ". The REAL problem is that government and it doesn't matter which level...Has TOO MUCH MONEY. When Politicians can walk away with golden handshakes, when Senators can receive full pay for years while awaiting fraud charges, while Political friends can laugh all the way to the bank, and while millions are wasted every day, while millions are paid to special interest groups, AND I can go on & on... but until all of this stops, Until one brave person stands up in whichever elected house & say's Enough is Enough...Until then & only until then, they do not deserve any more of my hard working tax dollar. Am I the only one who is sick & tired of being walked all over.
Guy in Victoria
Hey Tielemen, think for once eh. The people had their chance to vote last May. Complete waste of time. Most people will not get off the couch to protest, let alone care. Pay your bloody taxes and expect lower services. We can't afford to pay for rolls royce services when the lefties don't work. I'm no Liberal supporter. All policitians are useless. And by the way Tieleman, 23 years as a tax specialist for the largest law firm in Canada. I know taxes and I hope it hurts. Hurting is all part of the healing process.
Government didn't lie about HST. Most of you were too stupid to see it coming. HST has always been on the table for the past decade. Over 130 countries have a form of a consumption tax. Those who spend more pay more. So rich folks like me have to take the whole burden of useless lazy society and pay more taxes. I'm all for flat 15% tax. It's better than the 43.7% I'm paying now.
Hey Timberlake....
I take exception to your comments about our "useless lazy society". I've been working my ass off for the last 30yrs and just because I'm not one of you "Rich Folk" doesn't mean that I'm lazy or useless. If I was... you wouldn't be rich.
People like you with your arrogant attitudes are the reason we are in the state we're in. I'm tired of the select few who think that the resources/riches of the province belongs to them and not the masses.
Folks like you keep forgetting that it is a symbiotic relationship between the employee and employer. But then I wouldn't be surprised if you were an only child that was spoiled from birth!
If you don't like our "useless lazy society"... then leave! You won't hear me complain. Hell... this "useless lazy" individual will even pack your sorry ass bags for you.
Well Bill, at least is is obvious that the PAB has your site saved as one of their favourites. I just wonder how many of their posts are being made on company time(the taxpayers' dime).
The HST will only affect me as a consumer. As a person with limited discretionary spending I will spend the same amount of money as I do now, but every dollar that goes to HST will be one dollar spent elsewhere. When you consider that there are a great many people that are a lot worse off than I am financially, then the only logical outcome is that the retailers and restaurants will be the first to feel the reduced economic activity.
On the upside, the HST will provide some free entertainment I like to call "Count the empty storefronts".
Gosh Bill, the Liberal and Tory loonies are in full flight. Is there a full moon?
No wonder. On the G & M comments and on CFAX this afternoon a number of people have said they are switching to the NDP because of the HST.
Opposition to the HST reminds me of opposition to the Charlottetown Accord. While the political and media eleites were in favour, a strong populist undercurrent was opposed.
Yet this time - the New Democrats -are on the right side against this massive tax grab and greatest tax shift from corporations onto individuals in our history.
Incidentally, the daily CFAX poll, usually influenced by a conservative audience, has 70% of a big response saying that opposition to the HST is a vote changer.
When the price of gas skyrocketed, the ecomony tanked. If the stupid, useless and lazy have no money to spend, the effects are felt almost instantly. Instead of us waiting for big business to pass on savings to us, we will all be waiting for big (and little)business to fail.
Time to start a SULS co-op and keep what little is left in the family. Watch where you spend your money folks.
Bill, this recession/depression has been in the works for ten years. When it takes 1or2 trillion dollars to not even brake even,with the thieving business community or the corporate criminals, I'm sorry but this has all been planned.for some time.
Hopeless Harper the boss of CRAP has given the oil companies 15 billion bucks to sweeten their pensions and retirement packages.
Their shareholders will also benefit.
Now these scam artists want more money so Hopeless Harper and numb nut Campbell have nothing in the till so they will have to bilk the general public to feed these criminals.
There are a few comments that are pro liberal so these must be Campbells office staff or voters with a mental problem Could these be the same people that CKNW puts on hold for the talk shows?
Hey Bill I bet Winthorpe,in order to keep his job has to vote Right wing or he will lose that job but still qualify for one that he would be better at,,janitor.
How does Winthorpe tax politicians that are getting paid under the table when they sell off public assets?
Wasn't this exactly the same thing that had happened with the GST in 1991/92?
Wasn't that tax immensely disliked by the general public until on the grounds of ignorance?
Wasn't that tax immensely beneficial to Canada and its economic growth?
What am I missing here? The tyranny of the majority is not what I'm looking for here when I'm looking for reasons on why I should oppose the HST, please provide concrete evidence as to why or why not the tax would hurt BC. I could care less that 83% this and 93% stand for that. Give me useful facts! Thank you.
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