My Favorite Def Leppard Album? I'd Have to Say "HST-eria"

"Don't do it, Dalton!!"

This was roughly my initial reaction to the announcement made within the 2009 Ontario Provincial Budget. The announcement of another financial burden for all Ontarians on the Liberals' watch did not really surprise me, it was more the sheer size of the financial impact that this announcement carries. When I say "another" I am referring to The "Ontario Health Premium" unveiled by the Libs in the '04 budget, has been eating away at the incomes of working people to the tune of $300-900/year. This premium, much like the ancient "Trojan Horse" stealthily sneaks into your paycheque without you actually seeing the deduction from your earnings. Dalton's reasoning for this premium was ostensibly the unexpectedly large deficit inherited by the slash-burn practices of the Progressive Conservative tag-team of Harris & Eves.

To some people, although probably not many -the harmonization of Provincial and Federal sales taxes seems benign. I think if George Orwell were around today, he would quickly point out the "new speak"present in the term "Harmonized Tax". The expression reeks of the scariest parts of "1984".

Will we ever learn to see through these types of misleading and dishonest treatment of our resources? This tax has some elements of fairness, in that it excludes from harmonization, previously exempted goods like diapers, kids clothes, and books. I guess the Liberals could have gone a couple of steps farther, and taxed staple foods; or imposed an environmental levy on breathing (the levy might only apply to exhaling, in order to be fair).

In a time where jobs are being cut wholesale at an increasingly rapid pace, many people are feeling the barbed walls of economic misery closing in. People are apparently not full of optimism that their futures are bound to get brighter financially.

A lucky person right now is still on the receiving end of a raise. For many, the picture is probably a little more nerve-wracking. Pay cuts, wage freezes and erosion of other employment benefits (supplemental financial, health benefits) are leaving many people looking for the proverbial silver lining to their financial strife. The setbacks are immense for a great many folks right now. RSPs in the crapper, nest eggs and rainy day jars pillaged to make the next months payments - everyone has been impacted in some way. Even those insulated by supple, inflation-adjusted pensions, and life-long good saving habits are seeing the increases at the grocery store and on the utility bills. Time can act as a middle-weight inflationary pressure all on its own, without adding fuel to it.

As of July 1/2010, things are going to get more expensive.

Now, we can enjoy some added expenses, like:

+8% on Hydro Bills, Hair Cuts

+8% on Gas Bills (Heating and Vehicular)

+8% on Internet/Cable/Phone et al.

+8% on the Morning Timmies

But, hey - couples are getting three cheques totalling $1000.00 over a period of one year. Singles can expect to cha-ching in for a mere $300. A cap of $160,000 has been put in place on the income of couples receiving the rebate, in a valiant act of Social Justice by the Liberals.. $1000.00 before taxes. This amount, I would imagine would be taxed as income, much the same as the Federal Universal Child-care Benefit. I love being taxed on tax rebates. What a scam. This is Real Politik, Dalton - feeding people their own tax monies while acting as if your doing it to help them weather the migration to the HST is not morally fair, nor will it make the pill much easier to ingest for Ontarians.