Ontario's Economy Is Competitive Again!

I am a strong supporter of the new HST. The old tax system was archaic and this tax reform will greatly help the Ontario economy and Canadian economy. What a lot of people do not understand is that 85% of goods won’t have their prices increased after July 1st. The HST will allow businesses to save money which will get passed down to the consumers. I always use the example of an ice cream store. Say there are three ice cream stores in a town and they all have similar prices for their ice cream. Once one ice cream store realizes that they can lower their price of ice cream and still make a profit (as they will not be paying taxes on items they did before) they will do so because it will make their ice cream more attractive to consumers. Once one ice cream store lowers their prices other stores will soon do the same. A small clothing company called Entripy in Oakville said “We realized right away we’re looking to save between $15,000 to $20,000 in our first year [due to the new HST]. That’s immediate savings we can immediately then reinvest in our business…[which] will go to increasing staff”. If you are talking about poverty reduction you should be thrilled about the HST as it will be creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs!

Prime Minister Harper lowered the GST by a couple percent (which did nothing to help the economy or the consumers). However the new HST reform is an innovative one. Premier McGuinty has lowered the income tax rate for Ontarians and also given out installment cheques to help cope with the HST when it first comes in. British Columbia, which is also instituting the HST, is not doing. We must remember that the federal Conservatives and the Provincial Liberals are the ones that came to agreement on this. Liberals and Conservatives coming together to create a more competitive Ontario? Governments working together is something we don’t see enough, yet when it happens all of us criticize them!

P.S. The Ontario Provincial Conservatives have never said they would get rid of the HST if they get elected.

Group or Individual Rights?

Group rights and individual rights are very important political issues. The fact of the matter is, each one can greatly influence government legislation. When a government (like the Harper government) bases its legislation around individual concerns, the legislation can be very threatening to the group. An example being the proposed changes to the National Anthem by the Harper government, because a woman didn’t like that our anthem went “all our sons command”. In this case, an individual concern almost mutated our national anthem but because of the group and the rights of this group we stopped this as we felt it was inappropriate legislation. Certainly, when I found out that my anthem might be changed, I was unhappy to say the least.

On the other hand, the Ontario government is one that bases a majority of its legislation around group rights and not so much on individual rights. As seen with the bringing in of the Harmonized Sales Tax. This tax will benefit a group of people (ie. Ontario Businesses) but this tax will cause prices of goods to rise for a short time period which is an individual concern as we the people will be paying more.

Another example, which is a local issue in my home town of Oakville is the installation of a new power plant. The Ontario government and myself, know this is a necessary decision for the group (Homeowners in the GTA) as there is a demand for more power. However, my individual concern is that “I don't want a power plant in my back yard!”

One can see how by simply having a different perspective of individual rights/concerns and group rights/concerns, the impact on government legislation can be astounding.