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B.C. Liberals Set Their Hair on Fire

Maybe the next leader of the government should be someone who can explain taxes. Nah, forget that – check out the Liberals as they self-destruct. I was planning to run a reasoned, pithy, post on tax policy. I know, you were waiting on the edge of your seat for that very thing.   But then along came the ongoing self-immolation of Gordon Campbell and the Liberal Party. How could I resist? Tax policy be damned. You don't often see a governing party destroy itself like this.  

By Tony Wanless /

bc liberal leadership race

Maybe the next leader of the government should be someone who can explain taxes. Nah, forget that – check out the Liberals as they self-destruct.

I was planning to run a reasoned, pithy, post on tax policy. I know, you were waiting on the edge of your seat for that very thing.
 
But then along came the ongoing self-immolation of Gordon Campbell and the Liberal Party.

How could I resist? Tax policy be damned. You don’t often see a governing party destroy itself like this.
 

Well, maybe you do. This is B.C., after all. But these guys are doing it with such panache!
 
Outspoken Energy minister Bill Bennett gets sacked, apparently for opposing Gordon Campbell’s desire to hang around even though he has resigned because of HST anger. Campbell says the cabinet bounced Bennett, but Bennett says it was the Premier, who’s a big bully.
 
Meanwhile, other cabinet ministers are running for cover, avoiding the press and anybody who has anything to do with Campbell, the HST, the NDP, taxation, elections, and maybe men from Mars if there are any around.
 
Especially if they’re for the HST. Then, almost immediately after the Bennett affair, we discover that the recently announced provincial income-tax cut is being …uh… unannounced.

As in taking it back, didn’t mean it, my mistake, so sorry, Just Kidding! That $600 average we were going to put back in your pocket is now a non-tax cut.
 
Of course, I, and everybody else in B.C., can see why Campbell announced the income tax cut. He was trying to sooth the uprising in the province over the new HST. I can argue until I’m blue in the face that the HST is actually good for BC, but few people believe me, so I’ll stop.
 
What wasn’t good was an income tax cut. Why? Because it benefits those who make (and spend) the most. Generally, the HST does the opposite.
 
I’m not sure what cabinet thought of all this, since they’re not talking. But, apparently, they want BOTH the GST and a reinstatement of the income tax cut.
 
Okay, I know the province is in economic trouble, but really? The tax cut was a desperation move on the part of a Premier who was threatening to fall to below zero in the polls. It would have hamstrung the province financially for years.
 
Problem was that most people aren’t really up on their tax knowledge. I guess that’s because they don’t stay up all night studying it. I can’t imagine why.
 
As a result, they mistakenly see the HST as a new tax. Cutting the income tax meant nothing to them because they’re fixated on the hated “new” tax.
 
 So here’s my choice for the next leader of the Liberal Party. He/She should be a tax accountent.
 
 Nobody hates them.