H.S.T.

[Rwede]

It would indeed be nice if we could come to an understanding. However, thanks to the repealing of the HST, we're negotiating from a weakened, desperate position, which rarely has a positive outcome.

alberta and the feds want dirty pipelines across our province and thats a weakened position? wow

BC is in no position to stop any pipeline. There's posturing and permit delays for some things, but in the end, BC has no veto power on its own. If Canada wants a pipeline, it will be built.

My point was, sine BC is in a fiscally desperate position thanks to Dix and crew's costing us $3 billion, we're hardly in a position to demand forgiveness of the payback or anything else. As many predicted, the repeal of the HST has put us in a very crappy situation. But hey, we sure showed Gordo, didn't we?

[sooperphreek]

what is it with you right wingers? you throw rhetoric around like its gospel facts. didnt work for mitt and it wont work for you

[keith1612]

BC is in no position to stop any pipeline. There's posturing and permit delays for some things, but in the end, BC has no veto power on its own. If Canada wants a pipeline, it will be built.

My point was, sine BC is in a fiscally desperate position thanks to Dix and crew's costing us $3 billion, we're hardly in a position to demand forgiveness of the payback or anything else. As many predicted, the repeal of the HST has put us in a very crappy situation. But hey, we sure showed Gordo, didn't we?

yes we really did.
we showed Harper and the Liberals that some BC voters have some backbones and beliefs and wont just follow like sheep.
bet if we re held the referendum today or next week the vote would be the same.
as for costing us 3 billion i suppose its better to repay a loan once than have to pay billions a year in extra taxes.
all this hype is garbage anyway, more or less you are saying BC would have tanked and gone under then if we wouldnt have gotten the loan in the first place.
the Liberals cost BC this, why blame a party thats not elected?
the Liberals choose to lie to all the voters and then wasted money on a referendum knowing full well what the voters wanted.
maybe by throwing the liars out a new party can fix the mess Christy is leaving behind.

[sooperphreek]

perhaps the californians saw what happened in BC and learned from the liberals flusternuck. if there needs to be a tax re haul let the people know and ask them if its ok.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-07/californian-voters-please-tax-me#r=lr-fs

[Gone_Fishin]

The general electorate is not smart enough nor informed enough to grasp the concept of taxation, and as such, should not be responsible for yeas or nays on it. The posts on here from so many ignorant of the simple HST have proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

[keith1612]

The general electorate is not smart enough nor informed enough to grasp the concept of taxation, and as such, should not be responsible for yeas or nays on it. The posts on here from so many ignorant of the simple HST have proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

its that kind of pompus attitude that will wipe the liberals out of office.
contrary to your opinion most of us are not stupid enough to not realize when we are being lied to and robbed.
you may feel you are smarter than the rest but you are only fooling yourself.
i may not be a geek sitting in a office all day with a calculator but i can still tell when im getting screwed.

[keith1612]

The general electorate is not smart enough nor informed enough to grasp the concept of taxation, and as such, should not be responsible for yeas or nays on it. The posts on here from so many ignorant of the simple HST have proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

its that kind of pompus attitude that will wipe the liberals out of office.
contrary to your opinion most of us are not stupid enough to not realize when we are being lied to and robbed.
you may feel you are smarter than the rest but you are only fooling yourself.
i may not be a geek sitting in a office all day with a calculator but i can still tell when im getting screwed.

true ignorance is thinking you are smart enough to take choices away from taxpayers.

[Gone_Fishin]

The general electorate is not smart enough nor informed enough to grasp the concept of taxation, and as such, should not be responsible for yeas or nays on it. The posts on here from so many ignorant of the simple HST have proven that beyond a reasonable doubt.

its that kind of pompus attitude that will wipe the liberals out of office.
contrary to your opinion most of us are not stupid enough to not realize when we are being lied to and robbed.
you may feel you are smarter than the rest but you are only fooling yourself.
i may not be a geek sitting in a office all day with a calculator but i can still tell when im getting screwed.

What do my comments have to do with the Liberals? I'm not a Liberal.

As someone who works with taxation matters on a daily basis, I'm not fooling myself when I state that people who have blabbed away on here, totally misinformed on the HST, have no business determining taxation policy. Your own sparring with Rwede above shows he totally owned you on this topic, as he's a businessman who knows taxation policy, compared to your lack of knowledge on it.

By that, it holds that taxation matters should be determined by professionals who can properly analyse various taxation options as to their efficiency and effectiveness that will help government to streamline, business to compete with offshore producers, and workers to have good paying, stable jobs. Emotional, uneducated Joe Publics should not be the determinors of policy in such matters.

[keith1612]

What do my comments have to do with the Liberals? I'm not a Liberal.

As someone who works with taxation matters on a daily basis, I'm not fooling myself when I state that people who have blabbed away on here, totally misinformed on the HST, have no business determining taxation policy. Your own sparring with Rwede above shows he totally owned you on this topic, as he's a businessman who knows taxation policy, compared to your lack of knowledge on it.

By that, it holds that taxation matters should be determined by professionals who can properly analyse various taxation options as to their efficiency and effectiveness that will help government to streamline, business to compete with offshore producers, and workers to have good paying, stable jobs. Emotional, uneducated Joe Publics should not be the determinors of policy in such matters.

you guys should just get over it and stop whining.
the BC voters many who own businesses decided it was a garbage tax and to be rid of it.
sure it may be better for some but its also much worse for many more.
sorry i dont think i have any lack of knowledge about if i was losing money and being robbed over the HST.
if you miss the HST you can always i suppose move to ontario and be happy.
i guess us stupid folk won, live with it.

[keith1612]

its not hard to figure it out.
the government never tries to get less money.
the only reason the federal government gave BC money was because they knew full well the HST would bring in far more revenue at tax payers expense than the gst/pst.
just on pure labour bills alone they are making a fortune, its almost doubled the tax on all labour work done.
there is no gain for the general worker in BC at all, thats just more double talk and lies.
it didnt drop the price on anything.
prices just went up.
the only ones to gain were the big companies that didnt pass the savings down at all and never would.
the Liberal lies about lowering the HST was just smoke and mirrors also, notice they just promised to do it like they promised they wouldnt bring the HST in.
no the little dumb workers of BC didnt vote this out due to emotion they knew full well they were scammed and lied to and it was and still is costing more money.
we all arent sheep listening to all the garbage.

[Glacier]

It's reading threads like this that cause me to start warming up to the idea of requiring an IQ test for any potential voters.

[Sn0man]

It's reading threads like this that cause me to start warming up to the idea of requiring an IQ test for any potential voters.

Would 133 count?

The HST was not in and of itself a bad idea, and I believe would have been accepted by the majority of British Columbians but for two fatal errors in its implementation:

1) Expanding the tax base to include items which were not previously subject to PST (primarily, expanding it to include the service industry), and;

2) Doing so at a time when the economy was already on its knees.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it come back in the future, though i'm quite certain it won't be brought in anywhere near as haphazardly as it was in 2010.

[36Drew]

The HST was not in and of itself a bad idea, and I believe would have been accepted by the majority of British Columbians but for two fatal errors in its implementation:

Three, actually. The BC Government lied to the electorate about implementing the HST, and then just pushed it through without a mandate from the electorate.

[sooperphreek]

It's reading threads like this that cause me to start warming up to the idea of requiring an IQ test for any potential voters.

that pendulum swings both ways. you could say that about those who think the hst was mana from heaven as well. or about those that agree with the cozy back room political deals that they knew the average voter would be too "smart" to let happen.

[Glacier]

The HST was not in and of itself a bad idea, and I believe would have been accepted by the majority of British Columbians but for two fatal errors in its implementation:

Three, actually. The BC Government lied to the electorate about implementing the HST, and then just pushed it through without a mandate from the electorate.

Four, actually. The BC Government they required a mandate to keep the HST.