In arguably the best move of his political career, BC Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell has announced his resignation. I am very pleased to hear this. After he was re-elected to a 3rd term last year, I believe Andrew Coyne mused that the carbon tax could now be considered legitimate policy because Gordo was re-elected after enacting one. Most pundits are crediting the HST for his demise, but personally I think that he eroded all his credibility on taxation after the carbon tax. BC is still haunted by the ghosts of Ujjal Dosangh and Glen Clark, and his 3rd mandate was as much a rejection of the NDP as it was a victory for carbon taxes.
To quote a patron at my work today when he saw the news on the television: "Goodbye Gordo, I voted for you, but I won't miss you."
Just remember every single member of the pathological liar's caucus voted in favour of the HST. They're all equally guilty of endorsing the lie that Campbell foisted on us. They're ALL tainted.
ReplyDeleteIf you live by the lie..... You will not be missed Gordo, from the 6 year saga of BC Rail, 6 million in legal fees for a guilty plea. 2 years house arrest? OH it wasen't sold just "leased" for 99 years. Then the dippy green-tax on gas, yup that's gonna cool the planet. We need an alternative in BC.
ReplyDeleteCheers Bubba
I was a reluctant supporter of Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals. Primarily to make sure that the NDP never got elected into power in BC ever again.
ReplyDeleteIn general, Campbell has been a good Premier for BC. Where he has fallen down in recent years is in things like the Carbon Tax, various green fees on car batteries, tires, oil, etc. that just went into general revenue instead of dedicated projects to deal with the environment. Then we started getting various Nanny State laws like the one that forces us to pre-pay for gas before pumping because one stupid kid got himself killed when he tried to stop a gas & go, and the most recent switch to alcohol levels of .05 instead of .08
Throw in the BC Rail scandal with Bazi & Virk.
And the final straw was the HST.
At what point is enough, enough?
The question now is "Now What?"
The BC Liberals are still not out of the swamp. A lot is going to depend on who they elect as their new leader and possible premier.
He or she is going to have to undo a lot of what Campbell has done, the biggest being how do deal with the HST. While I generally think the HST is the right way to deal with the PST and GST, the way it was brought in was a total screw-up. It increased taxes on many things that were not taxed before, such as restaurant meals and such. If he had reduced the rate to 10%, people might have bought into it, OR if he had made sure that nothing would be taxed at a different rate, things might have gone his way.
So, the question now is do we get rid of the HST and go back to the old days, or do we fine tune the HST into something people will accept?
My advice:
-Remove the Carbon Tax on Gas
-Reduce the HST to 10% AND remove from Restaurant meals, and other items that were not taxed under PST/GST
-Move drunk driving limit back to .08
-Remove enviro fees from computers, electronics, batteries, oil, etc. UNLESS there is a dedicated program to deal with them.