OTTAWA — Michael Ignatieff says federal Liberals will support legislation to implement a harmonized sales tax in Ontario and British Columbia, despite previously bashing it as a job-killing “Harper sales tax.”
The Liberal leader announced his decision Tuesday after meeting his MPs, many of whom felt trapped in no-win situation and were torn over what to do.
Some MPs fear a backlash from voters in the two provinces, who are becoming increasingly angry about the prospect of paying more for a host of goods and services.
Others fear alienating the Liberal governments in Toronto and Victoria, whose campaign machines will be vital to the success of federal Liberals in the next election.
In the end, Ignatieff came down on the side of respecting the wishes of provincial governments, not to mention longstanding federal Liberal policy.
“This is a request from the provinces because they believe it’ll improve the competitiveness of their economy and create jobs,” Ignatieff said, noting that federal Liberals have promoted harmonization for 15 years.
“We will support this legislation in Parliament.”
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A classic case of “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” for Mr. Ignatief.
The BC Liberal party cannot be equated to the Federal Liberals. A completely different kettle of fish. Catering to the BC Liberal party won’t help the Federal Liberals and if I am reading the public right, it will likely hurt the Federal Liberals in BC. According to Dr. Keith Martin, Liberal MP, who was live on CKNW today, a lot of Federal Liberals want to vote against the HST but are being whipped into voting for it. MP Martin was talking pretty brave but he will undoubtedly roll over like the rest of the trained seals, or as he said “lemmings”.
mid island mike
Will he be re-elected next election, regardless of how he votes.
Same question for that other ex ndp premier.
It’s the right thing to do. His “Harper’s Sales Tax” bashing was just the usual knee-jerk rhetoric that had no basis in fact. Hudak is all alone now (well, he’s got the dippers, but that’s nobody). Hudak deserves to be all alone.
This is a pretty big tax hike for consumers, $3 billion is the number I hear. I dont think you will find a quote of any Tory saying that taxes should be hiked in the process. Every other province that did this a) reduced the overall taxation rate, b) exempted gasoline. But not McGuinty, hes using it as a tax hike. If McGuinty wanted to help the manufacturing sector without hurting consumers, they could have given corporations input tax credits on the existing PST. Instead, they are merging it with the GST, which means a massive tax hike for consumers.
Also, whats missing from Hudak is the biggest declaration from the pc party, and that was Mike Harris’ rejection of the HST back in the 1990′s for these very same reasons.