"I'll decide in my own sweet time."
- Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff on whether his MPs will vote against Harmonized Sales Tax legislation
The best and fastest way to kill the Harmonized Sales Tax in both B.C. and Ontario will happen as early as Wednesday in Parliament.
That's because Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was scheduled to introduce legislation to implement the hated new tax Monday, and a vote could take place this week.
So I'm urging readers who oppose the HST to not take their own sweet time, but instead drop everything to join a new Facebook protest group I created Sunday called "Defeat the HST in Parliament".
Search for it at www.facebook.com - or link at my "No BC HST" Facebook group - BC's largest - and join hundreds who have already signed up.
Then tell your MP to vote down the twelve per cent HST that the Gordon Campbell B.C. Liberal government wants to impose July 1, 2010.
Harper declared it will not be a confidence vote - so there will be no election if the HST is defeated - and he will not reintroduce HST legislation.
Conservative MPs are expected to support the HST, so it will take the three opposition parties voting together to defeat the tax, which would add seven per cent to a wide range of goods and services in B.C. and eight per cent in Ontario on top of the current five per cent GST.
Ignatieff has called it the "Harper Sales Tax" but so far the Liberals refuse to commit to vote the HST down.
The separatist Bloc Quebecois says it will "probably" support the HST legislation, likely for the intolerable price of a multi-billion dollar cheque to Quebec.
The federal New Democrats have repeatedly stated they will vote against the HST.
Meanwhile, two more powerful groups have stated their opposition to the HST - the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
B.C. Fed President Jim Sinclair said last week that labour may back efforts begun by former Premier Bill Vander Zalm - and supported by NDP leader Carole James - to force an Initiative vote against the HST.
"We must seriously consider mobilizing in 85 ridings to send this government a province-wide message: we do not want the HST," Sinclair said.
Sinclair added: "As we meet today, a team of community activists and labour activists in Kamloops are organizing a petition drive to get 8,000 signatures demanding the Liberal MLAs vote against the HST and call a referendum."
And UBCIC Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says: "This tax will further marginalize and add hardship to First Nations families and communities while increasing the coffers of industry and government."
Whether or not the HST is defeated in Parliament, recent events show that opposition is rapidly growing - long before the regressive tax is close to being imposed.
News, views and attitude Bill Tieleman
Search for it at www.facebook.com - or link at my "No BC HST" Facebook group - BC's largest - and join hundreds who have already signed up.
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