Just when you think B.C. has evolved enough to value common sense for the common good over politics for partisan gains, along comes the referendum on the harmonized sales tax (HST), and, boom, you know the province is still back in the mid-’70s watching opportunities to lead and excel being squandered as polarized propaganda wins the day.
A single value-added HST is a better and more equitable taxation option for the economy of the province and the country as a whole than is its double-headed, double-dealing GST/PST predecessor. But in this land of left versus right rather than right versus wrong, it was shrewdly seen as an opportunity to score a major political win for the anti-Liberal forces.
