McGuinty's HST Plan Nickle & Diming

When I need to buy computer parts online, I usually buy then from British Colombia for a couple of reasons. First of all, Ontario doesn't have any decent places to buy parts. Secondly, it's cheaper, namely because I don't have to pay PST on items purchased out of province. That is, provided that my province doesn't have a harmonized sales tax. HST basically combines GST and PST into one tax that is collected by the federal government, where they then give the PST cut to the provinces. Dalton McGuinty is putting forth the idea to implement HST in Ontario. He claims it will help Ontario businesses. He is right in a sense since it will make online shopping outside of Ontario more expensive, thus forcing consumers to adopt more local means. However, I see it as just more nickle and diming from the tax obsessed premier. The tax basically implements protectionism within your own country by punishing people who choose to purchase things from another region. It all boils down to just another scheme to get more tax dollars from Ontario residents.

This is pretty typical for the McGuinty Liberals though. It is extremely easy to implement and the feds are ultimately the ones doing most of the work. Liberals like quick fix, one hour photo solutions to complex problems. Lets face it, most Ontarians are not regularly buying things out of province. It punishes a minority while not fixing the economic slump that it seeks to address. However, to more feeble minded individuals, it gives the illusion that McGuinty is doing something to fix the economy when he actually isn't. Of course he should be encouraging investment in Ontario but taxation is not a good way of doing so during a recession. The appropriate way is to launch promotional campaigns, cut business taxes, and make Ontario an overall attractive place for business; rather than nickle and diming residents and throwing huge sums of money at dying industries.