When Are People In Ontario Going to Stop Whining And Start Fighting Back

BC Premier gets the boot over HST

A Commentary by Doug Draper
What is wrong with people here in Ontario!

Yes, that is right. I am talking about you and me, and our friends and relatives and neighbours across this province who will sit back and take just about anything the provincial or federal government dishes out to us – diminished hospital care and home care for the sick and our seniors, soaring tuition fees for our young people, billions wasted on high-priced consultants and, last but not least, the Harmonized Sales Tax or HST, for short.

I know. Some of you may be saying; ‘Hey Doug! What are you talking about? I am fighting back’. And I know there are some people out there – some of whom are reading and regularly contributing comments and columns of their own to Niagara At Large – who are fighting on a number of fronts for fairer, more affordable services and for better decisions from our governments around the quality of life in our communities. But I trust that those of you who are so engaged know I am talking about so many others who would rather just sit home in front of the boob tube watching mindless crap like ‘Jersey Shore’ or ‘Entertainment Tonight’ or an NHL hockey game hoping a fight will start. They’ll be among the first to whine when the provincial and federal governments come in and slaps another tax on them like the HST. But that’s about it. All they do is sit back and whine.

Not so in British Columbia, however.

In case you haven’t heard, the outcry by citizens in that province over trying to impose this regressive tax, which is more of a burden on fixed and lower income people than it is on anyone fortunate enough to make more than $50,000 a year, has been so resounding that the premier, Gordon Campbell, has suddenly resigned.

Residents in British Columbia have raised so much protest over the HST, including signing a province-wide petition for a possible rescinding of it in the B.C. legislature, that Campbell’s approval ratings have plummeted to less than 10 per cent and, quite extraordinarily, a critical mass of members in his own Liberal government caucus threatened to mount a movement to ‘shove him out’ (to paraphrase the wording in a story on the November 4 Globe and Mail’s front page) if he did not resign.

What I find most heartening about this whole episode in B.C. is that Campbell reportedly made a rare television address to residents in the province a week ago, hoping he could neutralize their anger over the HST by promising a significant cut in income taxes. What is hopeful here for anyone who hopes citizens can still see through the baloney is that it didn’t work. Residents in B.C., unlike enough of us in Ontario, apparently, realize that cutting income taxes – a progressive tax – is most advantageous to those at the higher end of the income spectrum. The HST is most hurtful to those at the lower end, who will still have to pay the same amount of sales tax as someone making a quarter of a million dollars a year for such basics as energy to heat and light their homes, clothes or a haircut.

But here in Ontario, as the July 1 date for the HST to take effect, many of us grumbled. But other than that, there was no real province-wide protest – at least none that shook the ground like it was shaken in B.C. To many of us just sat back and, yes, after a bit of whining and complaining, took it.

Since then, it has been learned that our rate of inflation in Ontario has soared well above the national average, thanks to the HST, and this tax may be responsible for people buying less, which hurts the overall economy of the province.

But other than that, we in Ontario, whether do to a general apathy or ignorance when it comes to public affairs, just sit back and let things like the HST get done to us. And, quite frankly folks, I am getting tired of hearing the whining from those who don’t care enough to fight the kind of fight that people in B.C. have.