Not often do I write an “I told you so” column, but let me suggest that you hang this one up on the front of your refrigerator and read it daily, at least until such time as you once again go out to the polls to vote.
July 1, Canada Day, the day in which we all are proud of, will now go down in everyone’s memory as the date in the year, known world-wide as 2010, that our government fluently flaunted, and underhandedly integrated, the GST with the PST, creating the proverbial straw, HST, that has broken the camel’s back.
I can’t understand, for the life of me, why the supposedly well educated fail to recognize that they have forced the oiling of a squeaky hinged door to welcome one of the greatest underground economies that has ever hit Canada.
The HST has choked the standard of living of the labour force to such an extent that greater than 50% of each day’s efforts are severed by the severe slash of the tax axe. Was I wrong in thinking that slavery was abolished in Canada? Apparently not. A rose by any other name still smells the same.
One need only glance at the history books to realize that no civilization has ever succeeded when the greater share of the economic wealth was sucked from the hands who had earned it. What makes this government think that it will not walk in the same footprints of failure, by doing the exact same thing?
When senior citizens are clinging to the jobs that our youth need so badly in order to fund their education, something is grossly wrong. When both working parents are forced to work longer and longer hours, some at a second job, in order to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, something is definitely wrong.
When the 100 acre small farmer is forced to build farm-gate produce stands in order to feed a family, something is definitely wrong.Yet our government powers-that-be twiddle their thumbs and openly brag about the thousands of jobs they have created. What jobs? With whose money? Is a power-tripper policing the flow of the under-the-table dollar, classified as a job?
God have mercy if one stoops so low to accept such a job.
Is it not time that we take a long and hard look at the man whom we vote into power? Is it not time that we take a long and hard look at the mandate of the party behind which we throw our support?
Is it not also time that we awake to the reality of the downward spiral that is definitely being forced upon us? Spelling “depression” as “recession” is not going to change the reality of actual fact. I have lived long enough to have “been there and done that,” and the writing is once again sprawled on the wall.
The hardest of hard times is once again shadowing our doorstep.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-843-4544