I hope Christy Clark doesn't think the drop has anything to do with her!

In a story today (May 21st) in the Vancouver Sun, Vaughn Palmer wrote about the upcoming HST referendum.  In the story he mentioned that Ipsos-Reid had just completed a study where a little over one third (36%) of taxpayers plan to vote yes to retaining the tax … while just over half the people (52%) will be voting to return to the old GST / PST combination.  That vote will be taking place next month in a mail in referendum.

Now given how the hated tax was conceived in secrecy prior to being announced ... and that only a mere year and a half ago there was near unanimous disapproval of the tax (including thousands upon thousands of Liberal voters) ... the fact they have the disapproval rating down to just over 50% now is pretty remarkable.

I hope that Christy Clark doesn't think the drop has anything to do with her however! 

I think a more likely reason is that voters are concerned about how the fed's will go about reclaiming the $1.6 billion dollar cash payment they gave our BC Liberal government to change our tax system to the HST.  Another likely reason is that Gordon Campbell, the person most closely associated with the HST, has been drummed out of government through a near revolt of BC citizens.

Other than the odd anarchist or freeloader, most people in BC are well aware that government has to raise the money it needs to fund our hospital, schools, take care of roads, provide assistance to families and individuals … look after policing … and much more.

While I'm thinking that a good number of people would not be likely to say that the Liberal government is doing a good job over-all, most will agree on the need for each of us to provide a fair share of what is needed.

Fair share however is where the real issue comes in when it comes to taxes and the HST.  It has already been well documented that those in lower income brackets have been least affected by the HST -- and in fact with the rebate cheques sent to them by the government, they have  actually ended up benefiting by the tax.

I am not an advocate of, "Tax the rich, they have lots of money", however I am pretty sure those with higher than average incomes would agree that they have not felt the impact of the HST in the same way as others.

So who are those “others”?  As I have mentioned previously, that leaves those of us in the ever-shrinking middle class taking the brunt of paying higher taxes due to the HST.   Given that opposition to the tax has dropped to just over 50% however, does that mean those of us in the middle class have changed our opinion of it, and how it was brought about?  Not bloody likely.

Instead I believe it has more to do with the fact that we are now finally getting agreement from the government that at 12% the tax is too high -- and that a likely 1% drop will be on its way as soon as possible. 

And why is that likely going to happen??  Well it has to do with the fact that the previous Gordon Campbell led Liberal government lied to us about the HST being revenue neutral.  It has in fact cost us an extra $350 per year (on average) for the everyday purchase we make. 

They knew all along that the HST would raise more money for them ... they simply miss-calculated how loud the resistance was going to be --- and for how long it would be sustained.

The other reason I believe there has been a drop in opposition to the tax is that Christy Clark is now preparing to bribe us with our own money.  She will soon be announcing the government will be expanding HST rebate cheques to include those of us in the middle class – the people the tax has most impacted.

Last weekend at the Liberal convention in Penticton Christy Clark said ... "After the report of the independent panel, I am more concerned than ever that the HST adds to the financial squeeze families are facing."

Thank you Christy … BUT WHY has it taken former Finance Minister Colin Hansen, current Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, and yourself, so long to figure that out?  Well it didn't actually, but you needed some way to put a positive spin on things, and so this is the story we are going to get.

I feel only fair to say that when I return my referendum ballot I will be voting to retain the HST -- and I think that a small majority of people will be doing the same as well.  We'll do that because while we hate how the tax was brought in, we know government needs the revenue.

Christy Clark -- and the Liberal government -- will not have anything to pat themselves on the back about if the tax survives the referendum.  That said, I hope that come the next provincial election, voters will remember why we had to have the referendum vote in the first place.

Hopefully that will then lead them to give serious though to the only political party in BC publicly declaring that BC voters have a right to government accountability -- and true representation of MLAs to the people who have elected them.  That my friends, will be a John Cummins led BC Conservative Party!

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of at least one conservative minded person.