Fighting for a New Tax for BC

There is a big honking battle an upcoming referendum in BC (British Columbia to you ignorant savages who aren't lucky enough live in lotus land).

This referendum is a fight between the forces of light and darkness... uh, scratch that... between the Liberal government and some antediluvian ex-Socred right-wing anti-government political hacks. (Can you guess which side I'm going to come down on?)

The Liberals have brought in an HST tax (Harmonized Sales Tax) -- a value-added tax -- to replace an antiquated hodgepodge of PST+GST (Provincial Sales Tax and a federal Goods and Services Tax). One benefit of HST is that it removes the distortions that the old PST imposed on BC-based businesses and will make them more competitive (and presumably boost the number of jobs in BC). From Wikipedia:

Although PST is a retail tax, the business sector is also subject to a 7% PST on most of its input, so it is put at a competitive disadvantage with business in other jurisdictions not subject to similar taxation.

And here is Wikipedia on the benefits of a VAT-style tax like HST:

Value added tax (VAT) in theory avoids the cascade effect of sales tax by taxing only the value added at each stage of production. For this reason, throughout the world, VAT has been gaining favour over traditional sales taxes.

The battle exploded because the HST extends the tax into more goods and services so many people (i.e. right wing nuts) see it as a "tax grab" by a tax-and-spend Liberal government.

Enough boring facts. Now onto the entertainment segment. Here's a fun video by UBC law grad Christopher Thompson that explains the HST vs PST+GST referendum. (Did you realize that being lectured on "taxes" can be fun?)

Take One:


Take Two:


Take ZZZZ:
Can't this guy make his mind up and settle on "just one" video? He wants his 15 minutes of fame done twice over? Geesh!

I'm all set to go vote to retain the new HST. Of course I'll probably be soundly defeated by the pitchforks-and-torches crowd that want to go back to the old system. Ah... the joys of democracy where the ignorant and ill-informed get to vote like the rest of us. (I believe like Churchill that democracy is the "worst" form of government... except for all other forms of government! Democracy may stumble around, make mistakes, and do idiotic things, but that is far better than having some self-appointed dictator-for-life -- are you listening ex-Premier Vander Zalm? -- or some hereditary aristocracy telling me what I can or can't do. So I'm all for democracy even if I get defeated in this referendum. Hurrah for Democracy!)