The HST isn't a tax increase! Honest!

Okay Mr. Campbell, we get it. The provincial government needs to be economical in these difficult times. The problem is, you're taking it to the step where you're being economical with the truth (read: lying).

The HST isn't a tax increase because we will pay 12% on items which formerly had a 5% tax. It isn't because businesses will pay less tax. GREAT! DOES IT LOOK LIKE THE CONSUMER GIVES A DAMN ABOUT HOW MUCH TAX BUSINESSES PAY?! IF I HAVE TO PAY MORE, IT'S A FREAKING TAX INCREASE!

You weren't lying to us about the HST because OBVIOUSLY you never promised that you wouldn't implement it if re-elected. That's definitely not why British Columbians elected you to a third term in office.

The province really, really, honestly was only going to have a deficit of $495 million in 2009. And all of a sudden after the election it's officially $2.8 billion. Either it was coincidental dyslexia or an accidentally on purpose LIE.

Seriously, this whole thing puts me in a bit of a pickle. The HST is actually good economic policy. It makes businesses more competitive in the province, and as a consumer tax will get the more affluent who have more to spend, not to mention that simplifying the sales tax collection will save the province oodles of money. The problem for me is not the HST; it's how it was implemented: that is to say, through lying, secrecy, backroom deals, and general disregard for the public.

A secondary problem arises from this - which party can I support in the next provincial election? The NDP will run the province into the poorhouse (as demonstrated the last time they governed), the Liberals can't be trusted with power anymore, and the Greens are my favourite joke (well no not really...that distinction still goes to Jack Layton). Basically, unless the BC Conservatives pull a meteoric rise out of the ashes within the next two and a half years, I will be completely alienated by the provincial political scene. That said, I will probably end up holding my nose and voting Liberal again just to keep the NDP out. Not that there's much hope for that happening now that the Liberals have dug themselves into a 15% hole with the entire HST fiasco.

Well may we say, "God save the Queen," because NOTHING will save this province. Not at this rate, anyways.