Yea I see signs of our economy coming back everyday! …figuratively…like it was curb stomped and bottled during a late-night bar brawl.
I think we should be analyzing the term “our economy” and ensuring that the average Joe is inclusive in this equation - beacuse I don’t think they are.
I can see that there will be spin-off but the only persons profiting will be the port workers and trucking companies.
port workers spend more in the stores etc so yes there is spin off benefits all around.
like after work today the cold beer and wine store benefited from me 
Bombarded with TV ads then we hit Subway in April long before the HST two subs and 2 iced teas were $28 something.
We’ve never been back. None of the northern fastfoods are ever ‘participating franchises’.
Hit KFC in Hooterville. Solly no bless, only duck mit.
Unless you don’t order a featured special.
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/1593/hstweasel.png
A little more from the Anti-HST perspective…
B.C. government halts HST flyer again
“The feedback we’ve had from the public and from many of the MLAs, many felt that it might even be in fact counterproductive at this stage,” said Hansen.
*…Ralston said he thinks the finance minister was afraid of further inflaming public opinion.
“I think this is just a part of the continuing litany about the HST where the B.C. Liberals — despite the opposition hammering away at them in the legislature over the past year, despite the public outcry, despite the 700,000 signatures — they just refuse to listen to the people of British Columbia,” he said.*
Some perspective and heresay from Bill Vanderzam with stories from British Columbians and the HST effect…
We are finding that the government has not been truthful with us about the HST yet again. The new tax actually amounts to more than 12% in some cases, because we have a tax on taxes…
A Vancouver man says his wife bought a package of “Huggies” diapers and was charged .80 cents HST. “Wasn’t that the same product the Finance Minister was holding up on TV saying there would be no HST? Either Safeway doesn’t know what they are doing, or Hansen, or both.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE…
I can identify with the diapers story. My sons diapers are charged HST, so is his formula and the bottle his formula is fed to him in. How is that an honest tax? They certainly can’t tell me that this is good for me, and good for my kids.
Except at the G20 meets, the spirit of protest has got so lame these days.
In the 60s all the female MPs in the Parliament would be tossing soiled tampons at the Finance Minister demanding the HST be removed.
The article is titled: “31 Days of HST Kills 30,000 Full-Time Ontario Jobs” and in Ontario the impact of HST is being felt.
Click to Read the Article Here: Canada Free Press with stats from STATS Canada
And In British Columbia, a cross section of resteraunt businesses surveyed are showing the staggering effect the HST has on their businesses.
Click to Read the Article Here:Business is down 10 Per Cent - HST having negative impact on restaurants: Survey
Because I can’t edit my posts…here is more information pertaining directly to the Anti-HST fight:
The coalition of businesses that attempted to have the anti-HST petition rejected on the grounds of it’s legal legitimacy is comprised mainly of the following: “Mining Association of British Columbia, the Coast Forest Products Association and the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce.”
…assisted with opinions by a former (BC Liberal) Attorney General - Geoff Plant in their launch of litigation.
[quote=“jesus”] A perfect example is my kids clothes. They are now more expensive… awesome. I will now be making trips out of province to purchase goods except food from now on. It may cost more to do so but I really dont care its my own silent protest.
[/quote]
Apparently I was blissfully unaware of what jesus meant when he wrote this until we went back to school shopping. No more tax free clothes for under 16-year olds!!!
Hmmmm…Walmart in Washington gave us full sales tax exemption on all our purchases. But the prices south of the border to start with were surprising:
$9 for a pair of jeans. $12 for more deluxe ones. $.25 for Crayola crayons (same ones were $3.25 across the border in BC)…
Is it true that only 27% of the possible voters actually voted in the last election? If that is the case and we are that lazy then I guess we get what we get.
STOP HST
Kids clothing that are childrens sizes (up to youth size 20) are not taxable under hst, instead gst of 5% is charged, and you dont have to fill out a tax exemption form anymore.
Not true … 51% of eligible voters (55% of registered voters) voted in 2009 (Elections BC stats) … but still poorest turnout on record.
Elections BC has upheld the Anti-HST Petition which, judging from current news will be submitted to a legislative committee once court proceedings instigated by the Coalition of BC Business (consisting mainly of the Mining Association of British Columbia, the Coast Forest Products Association and the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce) is finalized.
Read the full story here: Anti-HST petition upheld by Elections BC
Most worrysome in my view would be the legal-red-tape which is being legitimized by the Acting Chief Electoral Officer “Craig James.”
The litigation launched from the Chamber of Commerce and the remainder of the coalition of businesses in BC has allowed James to delay the process of submitting the petition to a legislative committee thus providing a time-delay-stumbling block to the Anti-HST campaign.
Don’t forget, it is big business in BC that is challenging the petition and now delaying us, the people of British Columbia in red-tape. Our government, including our elections branch has allowed big business to step in and delay an already defined process for the citizens of British Columbia though even itself has declared the Anti-HST petition as valid.
This is another anecdote in the nightmare of the Liberal-steamrolling surrounding the HST and does illustrate how badly our system is controlled by corporations. In light of this, as a voter, does it not anger you to know that you can/could cast your vote in a free country and KNOW without a doubt, that if big business says so, that our democracy can only be upheld by all of us banding together, both in mindset and actual money to fight in the courts?
Anti-HST’ers: Our petition does not belong to the Chief Electoral Officer
And in a related story from CBC News yesterday, Premier Gordon Campbell denies pressuring Acting Chief Elections Officer James into delaying the Anti-HST Petition from arriving on the doorstep of a selective legislative committee:
Campbell
B.C. Opposition Leader Carole James
Here’s a link to the court’s decision ordering Chief Election Officer to sent anti-HST petition to the legislature.
Thanks for that BTravenn! Good find. A little more about the Anti-HST Petition Succeeding thus far:
HST Petition can proceed, B.C. Judge Rules
http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20100816/470_bc_eddie_hst_100816.jpg
http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20100812/470_bc_hst_rally_100812.jpg
BC Supreme Court Orders Electoral Officer to Forward Petition to Legislative Committee
[quote]News Sections
**Supreme Court judge has validated the hotly contested 700,000 name, anti-HST petition, saying the document is constitutionally sound. **
By: The Canadian Press
Date: Friday Aug. 20, 2010 11:50 AM PT
A petition signed by more than 700,000 British Columbians angry over the harmonized sales tax is valid, says a judge who urged the province’s chief electoral officer to send the matter to the legislature as soon as possible.
Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the B.C. Supreme Court said Friday that he wasn’t persuaded by objections raised by a coalition of business groups, who argued, among other things, that the province no longer has jurisdiction over the HST because it’s a federal tax.
The petition was spearheaded by former premier Bill Vander Zalm, who is the province’s most vocal critic of the HST and has also launched his own court challenge of the constitutionality of the tax.
“Weighing the balance of convenience and the fact that Mr. Vander Zalm has been successful in the initiative petition and its defence in the court I would respectfully ask the chief electoral officer to perform his remaining duties under the Recall and Initiative Act forthwith,” Bauman said in his written ruling[/quote]
And further comments directly from the Anti-HST Website: Say No To HST in BC