POLL: Will you miss HST?

[Rwede]

And yet 2011 was 1.9% higher than 2010, which proves you completely wrong.

I know it doesn't support your agenda, but it's the reality of the situation. Retail is up in both years with the HST.

[NAB]

And yet 2011 was 1.9% higher than 2010, which proves you completely wrong.

I know it doesn't support your agenda, but it's the reality of the situation. Retail is up in both years with the HST.

LOL. I'll really try to see it your way Richard and believe you as I would really like to see it your way on that point, but thousands upon thousands know better so it will be a really tough slog. By the way, as far as I know there are no year end numbers even published for 2011 yet, so we will see when they are.

Edit to add: BTW, you should really think about what other things impact sales revenues and cause an increase in the numbers. You know, things like inflation rate, population increase, higher retail prices generally, and of course increased taxes ;-) Take all those things away and see what your numbers look like YOY.

And would our growth numbers have been much much better and our recovery from recession speeded up had the HST not been implemented at what was probably the worse possible time for BC? I guess we will never know now huh?

Nab

[Rwede]

Taxes are not added to sales figures. Sales figures are net of all taxes. Period.

[NAB]

Taxes are not added to sales figures. Sales figures are net of all taxes. Period.

If you say so Richard, if you say so LOL.

Nab

[LoneWolf_53]

With the way this topic poll was implemented the votes don't really count for a whole lot.

It should have been just left with option #1 and #2 since #3 which displays the most votes can easily contain people from either camp #1 or #2.

There are people who didn't like it, yet still will say they'll miss it, due to the fact they grasped what scrapping it would cost.

In other words how does the poll determine whether those voting for option #3 belong to camp #1 or #2? It doesn't.

It's a foregone conclusion that those who are against the HST would count the third option as being alongside their vote, but I don't think that's necessarily so.

[NAB]

Very true LW. It's the decided votes that count in any poll. The undecideds are merely the one's left who still need convincing one way or the other, or who are still researching in order to arrive at a decision.

Nab

[Urbane]

The real poll question should have been about what was better for the economy - retaining the HST or going back to the PST. It was reckless to abandon the HST at this time, knowing that it would take 18-24 months to make the change, in the middle of global financial uncertainty, and all the while ignoring the advice of the vast majority of economists. So much of the debate was focused on the HST (fair enough) but not enough, unfortunately, on its alternative. Its alternative is the PST will all of its previous exemptions and now that's what we're stuck with for some time to come.

[The Green Barbarian]

Taxes are not added to sales figures. Sales figures are net of all taxes. Period.

If you say so Richard, if you say so LOL.

Nab

I thought this was fairly common knowledge Nab?

[NAB]

The real poll question should have been about what was better for the economy - retaining the HST or going back to the PST.,,

Perhaps that was the expected or at least hoped for majority response that would lead to keeping the unexpected switch to HST even in the beginning of the major backlash from both consumers and members of the business community after HST was announced but not in place yet Urbane. But I guess the majority of people had finally just had it up to here with such dictatorial, deceitful, and underhanded tactics by government.

Nab

[Urbane]

The real poll question should have been about what was better for the economy - retaining the HST or going back to the PST.,,



Perhaps that was the expected or at least hoped for majority response that would lead to keeping the unexpected switch to HST even in the beginning of the major backlash from both consumers and members of the business community after HST was announced but not in place yet Urbane. But I guess the majority of people had finally just had it up to here with such dictatorial, deceitful, and underhanded tactics by government.

Nab

Yes, while many of you let your emotions trump common sense kudos to people like Steven loyd who, as much as he despised the Campbell government, thoroughly studied the two taxes and made his choice based on the evidence. I'm not voting for the BC Liberals next time either but I didn't use the HST referendum to cast that vote against the government.

[NAB]

I didn't use the referendum to vote against the government either Urbane, just strictly to vote against the HST which I had researched and determined was very wrong for BC, indeed all of Canada, in its totally messed up form. I knew my chance to vote against the government would come at a different time and place eventually. No "emotion" involved either, except perhaps for a feeling of happiness when the BC HST was defeated ;-) Perhaps by next time they will have put it back to the way it was intended, unwind the provinces that have it back to a truly harmonized vat, and then perhaps they will have a chance that all provinces will get on side with it as the only and standardized VAT right across the country - which should be the ultimate goal of the federal government and the provinces if they had any sense anyway insstead of continually piecemealing everything, and perpetuating all these little Kingdoms or feifdoms who's borders don't make sense any more anyway, -if indeed they ever did.

Edit to add: By the way, unless I am very wrong I think Steven likes and is all for tax increases, as least judging from his railing about the tax decreases of Campbells first term and the services cuts associated with them. HST I think would have made him very happy.

Nab

[steven lloyd]

Edit to add: By the way, unless I am very wrong I think Steven likes and is all for tax increases, as least judging from his railing about the tax decreases of Campbells first term and the services cuts associated with them. HST I think would have made him very happy. Nab

I would have responded to this earlier Nabs, but my computer was acting up (or at least navigating through the Castanet webpages was) and I had to go out to take care of some business. Nab - it is not that I enjoy tax increases or that I even enjoy paying taxes - I simply recognize that at some point some people need to start having a realistic notion of what is required to fund critical services (and the costs actually incurred and not saved by neglecting them), and perhaps, even pay down some debt (instead of incurring more as this government has). Yes, it is that alien concept of responsibility, and while we (you and I) might not be totally responsible for the debt incurred by this and previous governments, at some point someone is going to have to buck up and actually start paying for it. I am willing to pay my fair share. It is this strange notion of social responsibility and having some responsibility to the collective I am part of, and whose combined efforts I benefit from (like everyone else). Some things are still actually better accomplished by collective effort, even when some more naive minds want to assign everything associated with the word collective with socialism or communism (while ironically oblivious to the collective concepts underlying things like life insurance and investing in mutual funds as an example).

It is indeed unfortunate that Campbell’s recklessness dug us just that much further into an ever deeper hole (it did buy him an election victory though), but at some point someone in charge is going to have to quit pretending to be an adult and actually start acting like one. Yes, that is obviously not something we can expect too much of from the electorate (or the politians they continue to support) as they are all too quick to get easily duped by promises of tax cuts with no repercussions. The people of this province, it seems, would probably vote in a government that happily promised “Do not pay until next spring”. It did, after all, work for Campbell – and now we’re paying for that. By the way, no matter how you want to rationalize where the money is coming from or going, I also recognized that $1.6 Billion is still $1.6 Billion and that is a significant amount of money

– no matter what.