As soon as I learned of the news that the B.C. Finance Ministry had known about details of the HST months before the 2009 election, I knew I had to write about it. This sordid saga has been dragging on for over a year now, and now it seems the Campbell government has nowhere left to hide but in the depths of childlike fairytale excuses that are at once unbelievable, as well as grossly insulting to the intelligence:
Piece by piece, the shroud of deceit that covers the truth surrounding the background dealings of the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia is falling away from the B.C Liberal government. On Wednesday reports revealed that weeks before the 2009 B.C. election campaign in British Columbia even got underway, senior officials in the B.C. Finance Ministry were apprised of confidential details about the HST deal Ontario secured with Ottawa.
That deal included the lump cash payment and flexibility that sweetened the pot to such an extent that B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen said it convinced the government to go ahead and co-operate with Ottawa. The only problem is that Mr. Hansen said last year that the details of the HST were never discussed with the federal government until after the election, a statement he maintains to this very day.
So why didn’t opposition parties campaign against the HST in the election?
Have the opps promised to kill the HST?
If so, how will they pay back the Canadian taxpayer for the billions recieved to help in the transition?
just askin’
Trouble is, the choices we have right now in BC are Bad, Horribly Bad, So Bad You Can’t Even Imagine How Bad, and a barely there Conservative Party.
the Liberals can do whatever they want…no one wants to return to the NDP, the only other real option at this point.
Good question, but it depends who you’re talking about? The federal or the provincial? If provincial, nobody knew it was even on the table.
Well said,soccermom.
I know a B.C. Conservative Party candidate,and in my discussions with this person,there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency in preparing for the next election.
It’s almost as if they know they’re a fringe Party and expect to stay that way.
Unless Gordon Campbell steps down,after the next election we may very well have to get used to “Premier Carol James”.
It’s not a pleasant thought.