Your initial tone was 'who actually gives a shit', not your current 'i am indifferent on the tax so i will remain neutral by not voting'. Big attitude difference there buddy.

Right wing conservative?? BWAHAHAAHAHAHA
Just because I vote on something that affects me doesn't make me a conservative, S. S for shitface right?

Well, I wanted to hear other people opinions first, who also chose not to vote.

Yeah, I called you a fuckfaced conservative monkey. Lolyumadbro?
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:okay: Thanks "Yes" voters!! :thumbsup:

Couldn't stand that they got fucked once with the implementation of the HST. Had to vote "Yes" to extinguish it so they can get double fucked.
Well, here ya go. Double fucked. :buttkick: :ratedb:

highest amount of votes in favor of HST found in west vancouver..

lowest found in surrey.

'weird'..

Bippity Bump... :hi:


Emotions got in the way of HST vote: CFIB - News1130

Being an external accountant i agree with there being more paperwork and a seperate set of tax calculations. Time is money.

boohoo...in the end, we all still lose...

This has probably been discussed in the 13 pages by someone who is actually informed. But HST in theory aims to remove an entire level of government bureaucracy by harmonizing both federal and provincial taxes. This passes greater savings to the businesses. These savings in theory will eventually be passed to the consumer, as there are competitive pressures to do so, assuming HST had a long time to be in effect to see the savings become fruitful. Which won't happen if its abolished and PST is reenacted.

"IF"?? What rock have you been living under the last two years?

Thanks to the Zalm and his cronies stirring up emotions with their bullshit and lies, the HST *was* defeated by referendum... fortunately the gov't has managed to drag out reverting back to the PST mess, but it WILL happen eventually.

as its been said most people were just voting based on their rage and anger, it was more of showing that the govt cant just push us citizens around then actually doing what was good for everyone

I disagree. People voted the way they did because of their ignorance. Not because of rage/anger.

Sure they were raged/angry because they didn't want to pay "more" tax. Which lead them to vote to get rid of the HST. But, that's about it.

It doesn't help that so many people were so willingly misled by Zalm and the anti-HST brigade... as evidenced by this statement.

and yet people were misled by the liberals when they said they will not introduce hst in the beginning

I agree, most of my friends that voted to abolish it were just pissed that it was shoved down their throats. But I also agree they shouldve learned more about the tax itself then thinking such short term.

Im not saying thats my own personal belief as you assumed so quickly, perhaps I use the wrong word by saing "us citizens"

People voted against it because they thought they were paying more taxes with HST in place without knowing about any of HST's benefits.

^^this is the most accurate statement, thanks

I'd be curious to see what the new tax has brought in as opposed to the old system.

I know it would be in the budget, but has anyone seen an article that summarizes it for me?

man i wish we could get a re-vote.


also, ps, thanks for bumping this thread. this whole deal had slipped to the back of my mind and this thread has once again reminded me why society frustrates me.

Failed... because the Liberals DID NOT SAY THIS.

From the very start, I challenged anyone who claimed "Campbell lied" to provide proof: a recorded news clip, a transcript, anything, of Gordon Campbell himself stating categorically that they would not implement the HST. All I ever got back was all manner of "yeah, but"s.

The closest I ever heard about was some generic questionnaire, filled in by some staff member, that essentially said there were NO IMMEDIATE PLANS AT THAT TIME to bring in the HST... not that they would NEVER do it.

But this is exactly the kind of bullshit Zalm and crew kept spreading to get people to vote with their... well, with nothing, really, because they certainly weren't voting with their brains.

I get really annoyed when I repeatedly get told that because I voted to get rid of the HST, I wasn't voting with my brain.

Yeah, Vander Zalm is an idiot. Acknowledged.

I'm not.

I don't want to give our government one more dollar of my money, no matter how noble the cause. And when you give a government more money, they will find a way to spend it. Stupidly.

I would have been fine with a 10% HST...upon implementation. But it wasn't offered.

I would have been fine with keeping the HST, with changes to what was and was not taxed at 12% to more reflect the GST/PST system...but that wasn't offered.

And I'm a small business owner, and should have been all over the HST, but I wasn't. It made things worse for me, because it made things worse for my customers.

Don't call me an idiot because I disagree with you.

Fine. YOU may have been using your brain. But a LOT of people weren't... including businesses who, as referenced above, now regret that vote.

I know plenty of people who openly admitted at the time, they agreed it was "probably" a better tax system... but were voting against it as well, for purely emotional reasons: they believe "Campbell lied", they "wanted to teach the Liberals a lesson", etc. etc. THOSE are the idiots.

So you prefer having to deal with two separate tax bureaucracies? How does that help your bottom line?

Admittedly the shift in tax structure doesn't benefit ALL segments... the idea is that it benefits MORE of them, though, than does the separate GST/PST mess. And when businesses benefit, the economy as a whole improves, and that benefits everyone. If another small business sees enough benefit he can hire a couple more people... well, that's two more people that are off the dole and can maybe even become new customers of yours. Hell, maybe they're existing customers of yours that can now spend more with you because they're working again thanks to that other company down the street seeing the benefit.

"The economy" is a BIG-PICTURE, LONG-TERM concept, and almost universally, those I heard speaking against the HST were barely thinking beyond their own wallets, right now.

I don't know what's worse, the liberals jamming the HST down our throats in the first place, or them waffling and turning 180degrees with their tails between their legs.

They seemed to be more worried more about their popularity in the polls when they announced the referendum. If they really felt the HST was best for the province, they would have stuck to their guns.

That's a fucking sell out. And to top it off, it got them nowhere, they're down in the dumps, everyone's jumping off the SS Christie before it sinks.

The money spent to return to GST/PST could have funded a LOT of other more important projects.

You're making an argument against yourself with this one, because while your point is true, how many people (as a whole) are going to be worrying about long-term/big-picture types, when what they're most concerned about is their own wallets, right now.

How many people in the lower mainland are going to say I don't mind paying a bit more tax now because of the benefits outweigh the costs? The sample people who drive down to Bellingham in hordes to save 50 cents on milk?

It's been mentioned over and over that the HST would have been successful if it had been implemented correctly. The fact is that it wasn't.
Now it was repealed, unfortunate yes, but it is the result of democracy, whether or not the voters were (mis)informed or not, it is what it is

HST was introduced, people complained. HST is now being rolled back, people complain. I can understand people being upset about this entire HST ordeal regardless of which side you're on, but at the very least be thankful that we are even able to debate about it and that we don't have a portrait of Dear Leader in our bedrooms.

Oh, and for fucks sake, vote.

I have not been presented with one good argument for voting down the HST.

When I am presented with a good argument for voting down the HST, I will cease to broadly consider anyone who did an idiot. Until then...

Stupidly, like, say, spending billions of dollars on bureaucratic paperwork to revert back to GST/PST?

Then, there's this....

Why does it matter whether 10% HST was offered upon implementation, or at the time of the referendum?

What matters is the end result would have been 10% HST, not the process to get there; unless you're voting based on emotion instead of facts.

because doing whats good for everyone clearly is of secondary importance.....