Pumped

The Toronto Star reports on the latest tit-for-tat between Stephen Harper and Jack Layton about who’s to blame for current and future gas price hikes:

“Layton responded by saying gas prices are already too high and said Harper is to blame for some of it because his government subsidized big oil companies and helped to bring the harmonized sales tax to Ontario, which increased the price of gasoline by eight per cent last summer…”The Nova Scotia government began regulating gas prices in 2006 under pressure from the provincial NDP, when it was in opposition, and Layton said his party has discussed it before and remains open to the idea.”

For what it’s worth, as of yesterday, Nova Scotia had the third highest gas prices in the country. It also charges the highest rate of HST (15%) on gasoline of any jurisdiction in Canada, and charges the highest total amount of tax on gasoline per litre in Canada.Seems a rather glaring omission from the story, no?