Today, the Ontario NDP presented its comprehensive platform costing, including all policies announced during the election campaign. A popular theme among commentators has been that platform costings are unrealistic given the deteriorating economic outlook. As Andrea Horwath noted, her platform includes significant contingency funds. It is also cautiously built on the fiscal framework set out […]
Continue readingTag: HST
The Progressive Economics Forum: The Ontario NDP Platform
Pollsters tell us that Ontario’s New Democrats may double their seat total in next month’s provincial election. It’s also entirely conceivable that they could be part of a coalition government at Queen’s Park. But what’s actually in the party’s election platform? One central feature of the NDP’s proposals is to implement a tax credit for companies that hire new workers. The tax […]
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Falcon: Revenue neutral HST an "urban legend"
When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST annou…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, September 5, 2011
Spending Labour Day with Imtiaz Popat on “The Rational” on Vancouver’s COOP Radio, talking about Christy Clark’s revocation of a pre-2013 election date [coup, not really a premier, perhaps a “notional premier”], the end of the HST, the BCTF negotiations and how the courts noted how the government yanked almost $3 billion from BC’s K-12 […]
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Elections BC and the charade of secrecy
Shortly after 11 am Friday, August 26, Acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James delivered HST vote results to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the Clerk of the Assembly and the Attorney General. At 11:15 am, James released details to member…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: So the BC HST Was Defeated. Now What?
Earlier today, Elections BC announced the much anticipated HST referendum results. British Columbians have voted to scrap the HST. The best part about having the results is that now we can move on from the narrow issue of what type of sales tax is better and focus our energies on some of the bigger issues […]
Continue readingImpolitical: Why progressives should support the HST
Ken Lewenza in a speech in December, 2009 on the anti-HST positioning from the right: We can’t buy into this. Neither can my friends in the New Democratic Party. I said to the Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, “Andrea, the harmonized sales tax, as unp…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Good riddance
At long last, B.C.’s HST has met its end. Vaughn Palmer reminds us why, while Iglika Ivanova looks at what comes next.
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: Extinguished
It’s hardly the kind of decisive victory the anti-HST movement would have expected a year ago, but 55% of British Columbian have voted to replace the HST with the GST and PST.
One immediate consequence of this is that Christy Clark and Jim Flaherty w…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: BC HST Dead as a Doornail
The people of British Columbia have spoken. The Harmonized Sales Tax initiative sprung on them in a totally underhanded manner by Stephen Harper’s new ambassador to Britain has gone down in flames on a public referendum vote. It…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On hollow victories
Sean Holman raises the possibility that Christy Clark and the B.C. Libs may be no better off if they manage to hang onto the HST in the province’s ongoing referendum than if they lose the vote. But I wonder whether it’s worth going a step further.If th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- In case anybody held out hope that the Harper Cons might follow up on their residential school apology with some concrete action to change First Nations relations for the better, here’s the predictable result: a…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week.- I’ll join the seemingly long list of commentators who wouldn’t ever have expected to cite David Brooks, but can’t avoid it based on his latest column:Eldar Shafir of Princeton and Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard have…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Burned by B.C.’s Toxic HST Debate
“The fact that the Clark government’s Frankenstein HST hybrid will significantly reduce provincial sales tax revenue at a time when public services are already under intense fiscal pressure is a powerful and principled reason to throw the whole package out in the referendum, and start the debate from scratch.” I may live in Ontario, but […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: New Report: Return to PST Will Create 12 Million Jobs in BC Alone
I’m happy to announce new findings that show that if BC returns to the old Provincial Sales Tax (PST) following the referendum, probably as many as 12 million jobs will be created. This estimate is based on Sixth Estate’s personal exploration of how economics is a worthless bullshit profession which only gets worse when you […]
Continue readingTwenty six cents.
Remember a few months ago when, to great public fanfare, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced in its budget that it would be giving consumers a break on their energy bills, by (somehow) eliminating the province’s portion of the HST …
Continue readingIt’s not Grit Girl, but it’ll do
Prediction: three consecutive majorities. Dalton McGuinty is going to pull a Chretien.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- With health care once again receiving plenty of attention on the U.S. political scene thanks to the Republicans’ plan to dismantle publicly-funded Medicare, the differences between Canada and the U.S. are once a…
Continue readingHST delimma
#hst #bcpoli #bcndp #bclib
So, we’re about to get our vote on the BC HST that was rudely dropped on the province. I have to admit that I am on the fence on the tax and I hate that fact.
I want to oppose the HST. I am just as furious about how former …
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Anti-Anti-HST
Chris Thompson, UBC law student and creator of an open letter in the form of a YouTube video addressed to former Socred premier Bill Vander Zalm (the most vocal proponent of the anti-HST movement in B.C.), appearing on the Business … Continue reading →