Harmonized Sales Tax Makes Lefties Turn Right

North America is a polarized continent. Liberal, Conservative. Bleeding hearts versus the heartless. Left versus right.

It is this kind of fodder that makes American cable news programs salivate. But this is Canada, where political stripes are drawn here and there by a complacent citizenry who may not even know what wing they tend to flap. And Canadians may be all the better for it.

Dalton McGuinty’s Provincial government’s harmonized sales tax is a perfect working example of how certain issues fall on both sides of the political sphere. Most Ontarians are against the plan – a tax that would see the 8% Provincial and 5% Federal GST merge for hundreds products and services. In any event, both Liberal and Conservative critics at the federal and provincial levels have criticized the bill, calling it a tactic of deception for a government who is trying to supplement their own inadequacies by pillaging ordinary citizens out of their hard earned cash.

So back to Left versus Right. Thankfully Canada does not have a Sarah Palin to really test my theory that most Canadians could care less what side we tend to gravitate towards. We do have perennial hacks like Alice Klein and Rachel Marsden – but they tend to preach to sparse, stupidity-addicted choirs who fall in line whenever ideological conjecture overrides stone cold facts. Other, more thoughtful individuals look at issues one at a time. You might be a weed smoking gun owner; an anti-war protester who believes Israel has a right to defend itself, or perhaps just a lazy musician who doesn’t want to get taxed if his burrito costs more than four bucks. Believe it or not, Canadians tend to hold beliefs that dance inside the vast political spectrum, only they have no idea what you mean when you tell them so. Good for us. Who needs the labeling of left or right to prevent us from speaking honestly on which issues we are concerned about?

Even McGuinty received help from Prime Minister Stephen Harper – two good old boys on the opposite sides of ideology – to pass this bill. If those two can put aside political differences and proceed to gouge consumers then I don’t see why ordinary Canucks can’t rally together and vote against their overall ideology in the next Federal and Provincial elections.

Ah yes, a harmonized electorate doing what’s best for Canadians.