To the editor:
Currently, 18 million Canadian taxpayers are now paying the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in the provinces that have it.
Quebec is now negotiating with the federal government to bring in the HST. The federal government will give Quebec $2.2 billion for adopting the HST.
This will add another seven million taxpayers to a total of 25 million.
Bill Vander Zalm's protest HST petition of 557,383 (as per final count total from Elections BC), not the propaganda total of 700,000, which had disqualified signatures, is no match to the 25 million Canadian taxpayers who are paying the HST.
British Columbia has the lowest HST rate in Canada at 12 per cent and Nova Scotia with a NDP government has the highest HST rate in Canada at 15 per cent. If the upcoming HST vote passes to stay in B.C., the province will still have the lowest HST rate in Canada.
B.C. has been the only province that has gone to the streets protesting like a third-world nation, creating a good laugh to the rest of the Canadian taxpayers, who just sit back, and pay the tax. They realize all governments, regardless of political party, will collect taxes in one shape, form, or another.
In B.C., there is fact and fiction. The fact is the B.C. Liberal government and the 25 million Canadian taxpayers. The fiction is the NDP, Bill Vander Zalm, and Jim Sinclair.
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan