Premier Dalton McGuinty, one of if not the most prolific political liars in history, has finally come clean about how the Harmonized Sales Tax will affect Ontario residents. After months of denying the new tax will force taxpayers to fork over more of their hard earned money to him so he can squander it, he finally came out and told the truth. Too many studies showed that many residents of Ontario will be paying hundreds of dollars more in taxes when the HST fully kicks in on July 1.
The name of the new tax is a lie. Having a “harmonized” tax implies that the current two taxes; the PST and GST will simply be added together. The new tax hit is sometimes referred to as a “blended” tax which again infers a simple melding together of two taxes with no other effect. The reality is, of course that it's a brand new tax grab although to give the premier his due, it’s not the biggest tax hike since Dalton first came to office in 2003.
The reality is that when the HST becomes effective, the cost of all goods that are presently exempt from provincial sales tax will increase by 8%. The big hit will come in services that are presently not taxed provincially. All services from car repairs to veterinary care for Fido and Fluffy will cost 8% more beginning in July. It became so obvious that even the guy who consistently promises not to raise taxes had to admit that pretty well everyone was going to have to pay more.
Having decided to tell the truth for once, Dalton had to come up with a way to make it palatable. He chose to do it by calling paying more to his already bloated government, a sacrifice. Just like harmonized means “greater” and spending means “investing”, Dalty uses word games in order to put one over on the unwashed masses. We all know that we “invest” our money to keep McGuinty’s Liberal Party appointees in their morning Timmys.
The premier not only said that taxpayers had to sacrifice but he compared it to the sacrifices that fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers made. Although there is a debate whether he actually mentioned wars, the inference was clear. Much like previous generations sacrificed their lives, both figuratively and literally, we must now sacrifice by paying more money to McGuinty’s government so that he can spend it on such things as creating new offences for already illegal acts (stunt driving), creating new ones that have limited value (banning pit bulls) and properly educating the province’s children in the fine art of masturbation. This is somehow comparable to landing on the beach at Normandy.
Judging from the letters to the editor and comments made on the Internet, a lot of people were upset at McGuinty when he dared to compare paying more in sales taxes with the sacrifices made during wartime. But just as those who bravely fought in previous wars, McGuinty is a product of his time. These days, people are not called upon to make sacrifices. Paying more for Fido’s rabies shots is just about it. Wars today only affect those who volunteer to make sacrifices and a small circle of friends and family. Through total pampering, today’s Ontarians are a bunch of wimps. And that’s the way the majority want it; if they didn’t, McGuinty would never have obtained a second majority government. He is a firm believer in the nanny state; there is no problem that anyone can have that is too small that cannot be taken care of by the government. If people were asked to make the type of sacrifices that past generations did, there would be riots in the streets but not on a scale that we see in Greece. Unlike BC that is implanting the same tax, there’s hardly a peep out of Ontarians.
The scary thing is that Dalton McGuinty may really think that paying more taxes is a true sacrifice. This may be one of those rare occasions when Dalton McGuinty Jr. is actually telling the truth. And that says more about us than it does about the premier.
