06.18.2010 08:59 AM

Little Timmy Hudak and the HSTs: review round-up

That little-known nostalgia act, Little Timmy and the HSTs, are touring Ontario – and the reviews are pouring in!

Adam Radwanski has a column about Timmy’s tune-making in today’s Globe:

Mr. Hudak’s Tories don’t have [the ability to make “a principled and non-conflicted case” against the HST]. Their ties to the federal party that championed the HST, combined with the fact that they don’t fundamentally oppose the nature of the reform, have limited their ability to benefit from the issue in and of itself.”

And there’s also this boffo review, from the Guelph Mercury yesterday:

“Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak was once again all talk and no promised action during a visit to Guelph.  As he did in previous stops — Hudak has been in Guelph four times during the last 14 months — he lashed out at Premier Dalton McGuinty and the looming harmonized sales tax, which takes effect July 1. But the leader again failed to offer a concrete solution to the tax.”

Then, there’s my latest favourite, also from yesterday, in the Toronto Star:

While Hudak insists he opposes the tax, he has also pointedly decline to promise to repeal it.  Party sources say that’s because the leader, who has a masters in economics from the University of Washington, sees the merit in taxing consumption instead of income to spark productivity.

What a tune! “We Really, Really Hate It, But We Won’t Get Rid Of It, Because We See The Merit In It!”

Long song title.  Doesn’t sound like a hit to me, but what do I know?

8 Comments

  1. Tceh says:

    Because you are from Ontario I can understand the Ontario-centric flavour of your post Warren. However if you look towards the west you will see how badly Gordon Campbell’s Liberals are damaged by their HST implementation. Well ahead of schedule the BC anti-HST campaign has achieved it’s stated goal of getting 15% of registed voters in every riding to sign a petition protesting the HST http://fighthst.com/ . Gordon Campbell is making brave noises that he won’t back down so the next step seems to be to recall MPs in the 6 or 7 weakest BC Liberal ridings.

    Personally I think Campell’s arrogance will ultimately do him in. He made assurances he wouldn’t implement the HST during the last election then within months reversed himself. The HST concept is not evil or bad, but Campbell used the HST implementation as an opportunity to tax parts of the economy that were PST-exempt before. BC’rs are angry and BC Provincial Liberal MPs are nervous as they should be.

    The lecture on the merits of HST are unnecessary. Taxing consumption is a better idea than taxing income. However masking a tax grab with HST implementation will be the BC Liberals downfall IMVHO.

    • Namesake says:

      Glad you called them “Gordon Campbell’s Liberals,” which they should be required to do, as well, under Truth-in-Advertising rules, to distinguish them from the real brand they’re masquerading as (kinda like “Jim Kale’s Guess Who,” or “Believe It – It’s Not Butter.”)

  2. Paul R. Martin says:

    I am sure thay you are aware that 13% is an unlucky number. Hudak will promise to reduce the HST to 12%. He will also point out that at 13%, the HST is not revenue neutral. He will also remind voters that the Ontario Liberals have a habit of raising taxes, even if they previously promise that they will not raise them. The next Ontario election is not a slam dunk for the Liberals.

    • Michael says:

      And I’m sure Team McGuinty can point out that Hudak’s only ideas (aside from his stated desire to see more plastic bags and greater pesticide use) are recycled from the Mike Harris “Nonsense Revolution”.

      No thanks Tim.

      • Paul R. Martin says:

        At least Dalton McGuinty seems to have a sense of humour. I recently received from him a letter that says in part that “Ontario’s tax changes will help create 591,00 jobs”. He even went to Sudbury to mail the letter. I am very impressed that he came up with the number 591,000. I assume that 591,013 would seem to be too precise. I just wish that he provided a time frame for this job creation estimate. Is it over 7 years, 13 years or “x” years? I would have also liked to know how many jobs were created by his Ontario Health Premium? Anyways, as Warren will be running the “War Room”, I am sure that we will have greater clarity in due course.

  3. Perhaps British Columbians have better memories of what their “leaders” are saying and the push back in B.C. is because our citizens are willing to take them to task when what they do is not aligned with what they say.

    For years BC Premier Gordon Campbell has been pursuing the lower-taxes mantra, championing his drive to make B.C. the jurisdiction in Canada with the lowest personal and corporate, especially corporate, taxes. That chant has been joined by Harper through the first years of his time in office and he has very publicly and unhelpfully decided to lower GST 2 points rather than do something more constructive than continuing his pursuit of permanently hollowing out the federal government by savaging the power of the purse. Maybe our memories aren’t so bad, and reconciling what Campbell and Harper have repeatedly said with what they are about to do doesn’t come easily.

    Now you have the Premier, unpopular already for many reasons, introducing an unpopular tax, with absolutely no debate being held during the election. It seems Premier McGuinty at least accepted the responsibility to sell the idea before announcing it fait accompli.

    Nah. I take back what I’ve said above. The main reason people are revolting against the tax in B.C. is because they do not like to see clucking chickens leading the charge and they smell blood in the water. Once in a while dogs have to have their way with fowl.

    (My apologies to hens and roosters everywhere for that comparison)

  4. Cam says:

    CBC had a good story on the HST this week too – big firms saving ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars which is going back into capital investments. Small firms saving big bucks too – how can this be bad??

    ‘They won’t pass it on to consumers’, you say? Doubtful, unless they don’t want to stay in business. We’re still a market economy.

    And maybe this helps get our productivity back on track.

  5. William King says:

    ?We Really, Really Hate It, But We Won?t Get Rid Of It, Because We See The Merit In It!?

    As contrasted with Chretien promising to repeal the GST and then not doing it?

    Cheers,

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