Listen.
You can’t do anything about it – no matter how much the NDP and PC parties would have you believe.
You should also remember when it comes to election time in 2011, neither the NDP or the PC party could cancel it – even if they were inclined to do so… which is completely unlikely because government likes money – since it makes it possible for them to live up to 45% of the promises they make during their election campaigns.
The only reason that the NDP and PC parties are squawking about it now – two years before any election could be called by normal means – is that they’re trying to build up doubt amongst voters in the long term.
In two years time, the dust will have settled mostly over the HST implementation because the electorate will have been paying the extra taxes for more than a year and will have settled into acceptance – however begrudging it is.
Ontarians were irritated by the health premium tax introduced by the Liberals before eventually getting over it by the next election – despite the two opposition parties hammering away on the issue to no end during the last provincial election campaign.
It all boils down to the experienced adult’s concept of reality i.e. the old saying that the only certainties in life are death and taxes – which is pretty much universal no matter which party is in control of Ontario’s parliament.
Taxes go up in the long term – never down (except in brief spurts that raise the ruling party’s profile for a time – such as the federal Conservatives lowering the GST rates).
Why don’t they ever go down?
It’s simple: the provincial electorate – the citizens who vote during an election – get used to a particular level of service from their government and it’s individual agencies that deals directly with the public.
Let’s take two costly departments as an example – the Ministry Of Health, and the Ministry Of Education.
These two governmental departments take an enormous amount of cash to run at their current levels of service… and even then, they don’t really have enough money to meet their goals as set out by the government – the goals that the majority of Ontario’s citizens look forward to seeing implemented sooner than later.
How else is the government going to pay for shorter wait times at hospitals and doctor’s offices?
Where is they government going to get money to hire teachers and implement a better curriculum to teach at your children’s schools?
Taxation.
The money for these enormous public institutions comes from your pocket through taxes and tariffs on the goods and services that you consume on a daily basis.
As much as it hurts at the point of purchase, the average citizen sees that money come back to them in the form of the government improving areas of their lives – whether it be through better health care, improved educational opportunities, or expanded and renewed infrastructure projects.
That’s where your tax money will go when the HST comes into effect next July.
The NDP and the PC parties would like it very much if you temporarily (or better yet, in the long term) forget that you can’t get something for nothing in this world that we live in.
Both the provincial New Democrats and Tories tried that last time they ran the province and what did it result in?
Nearly every single public employee union was on strike.
The poor were getting poorer.
Health care suffered.
Things didn’t get better until taxes went up when the Liberals took over.
See how that works?
In the end, higher taxes make people happier – which seems rather perverse when you think about it and is the absolute inverse of what the opposition parties want you to believe.
What else can they harp about that will resonate with the general public?
The OLG and eHealth scandals are fleeting and will subside over time, most likely long forgotten by the fall season in 2011 – yet the NDP and PCs still nag about those at every chance they get – despite only the eHealth issue being directly attributable to the current Liberal party.
No… taxes are the only long-term issue that effects the public, so that’s the topic which the opposition will crow the loudest about.
But it doesn’t really matter in the end.
We as the voting public will get over the HST and the increases that it represents to our bottom lines.
That may stick in your craw at the moment and leave a sour taste in your mouth – but it’s inevitable.
It’s somewhat similar to those of you out there that may be reading this blog who absolutely HATE getting any kind of needle – regardless of the obvious health benefits that will you’ll receive upon going through the momentary pain.
So why don’t we all just roll up our sleeves and demand that our chosen political parties get it over with and move on to something far more interesting?
I, for one, and really tired of hearing the broken record that’s playing at Question Period.
Let’s listen to something better.
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