The Hated HST

I remember when Mulroney introduced the GST and how Canadians hated this tax.
Mulroney paid for this at the polls, when the Conservative government suffered a devastating defeat at the polls. Jean Chretien was elected on the promise that he would abolish the GST, a promise that he did not keep. The Liberals have always been self-serving. That is why Ignatief is so silent about the introduction of the HST in New Brunswick and British Columbia.
The HST is nothing more or less than a Provincial GST on top of the Federal GST.
One wonders if Gordon Campbell and his Provincial Liberal really did their homework about the effects of the HST on British Columbians. Did they realize that
there would be so much opposition to this tax? Were they mesmerized by the money offered by the Federal government to those who adopted this tax. It was such an easy solution to their difficulties about balancing the budget.
Of course, Gordon Campbell is rich, and paying the new tax will be no sacrifice to him. The rich will have no difficulty in paying this tax that imposes taxes on items that were previously not taxed. It is the middle class and those on small incomes who will feel the pinch. The Liberals say that the HST will be advantageous to the
Province's busineses, and create more jobs. Then, why has this not happened in Brunswick?
Our only recourse at the moment is to sign the petition against the tax. Perhaps,
history will repeat itself, and finally we will just accept the inevitable. Or we can repeat to ourselves: Is it from heaven or is it from hell, this damned intrusive HST?

Growing up in a Tropical paradise

"Shining waters and golden sands." Isn't that what the tourist from developed countries see when they plan their holiday to the Caribbean islands? Growing up as a young boy in the southernmost island of the West Indies, I was exposed to life as it really is in these small countries. From my earliest days at school I was told by the members of my family that I had to study and work hard to be always at the top of my class. Education, after elementary school, is not free, at least not in my day, in my native land. The only way it would not cost me was to win a scholarship to go to High school. So I studied hard to win one of the twelve or fourteen scholarships offered by the government to all the elementary school children elegible.
It is not only education, but also the availability of medical care, that was not open to those who could not pay. I remember that when I became sick, sometimes with such high fevers that I began to hallucinate, it was not a qualifed doctor but the application of home remedies by my parents that cured me.
Later on in my life, after I obtained my M.A. degree in an English university, I went to work in West Africa. There I saw that life was not far different for the native people to what I had experienced as a boy in my homeland. Life , in many ways, was even tougher for them. As I stayed working there even after the country achieved independence, I was able to see that rule by their own people did not bring about the utopia that was hoped for by the indigenous inhabitants.
A visitor only sees the wonderful warm climate, the beautiful beaches and blue
transparent waters. The song "Jamaica Farewell" ends with the reality of life in these countries. I hear the words: " I see women on bended knees cutting cane for their family." These people toil in the heat of the sun without the benefits that workers enjoy in developed countries.