Hey! Gordo & the other pigs at the trough have to pay for their 109% pay increases somehow.

Amen!

But while the premier is neglecting hard working British Columbians he is rewarding friends in his inner circle.
Gordon Campbell gave himself a hefty 54 percent raise in 2007, and under his watch, CEO's of crown corporations have seen their compensation skyrocket by as much as 166 per cent.
Gordon Campbell gave his deputy ministers a hefty pay raise in 2001 and another in 2006 - this time promising not to do it again for four more years. Then the premier broke his promise two years later, giving his deputy ministers another raise and opening the door for an increase of up to 43 per cent in 2008.
In February 2008, the public learned that Campbell's TransLink board voted themselves a 500 percent pay raise. Only a few weeks later, the premier's BC Ferries directors received an increase of up to 60 percent -- on April 1, 2008 - the same day ferry fares were increased for British Columbians.
In 2008, more than 50,000 British Columbians worked for minimum wage or less.
Since 2001, Campbell has raised the salaries of deputy ministers three times. If Campbell had raised the minimum wage at the same rate of increase as his deputy ministers' salaries, the minimum wage would now be $12.20 per hour.

· When asked whether he would support targets to reduce poverty, Gordon Campbell said "I think our goal is to have the lowest level of unemployment that we can, which reduces poverty."
· Fact: Gordon Campbell is so out of touch he doesn't seem to realise that more than half of children in B.C. who live in poverty are from homes where at least one parent works full-time. And while he has refused to give our lowest-paid workers their first raise in eight years, Gordon Campbell hiked his own salary by 54 per cent and handed exorbitant pay raises to his top advisors.
· Campbell's claim: Gordon Campbell then went on to claim that "there's not a province in the country that wouldn't like to have our job creation record over the last seven years."
· Fact: Under the Campbell Liberals, almost 70,000 full-time jobs were lost in B.C. in the first two months of the year. And they sat on their hands while more than 25,000 jobs have been lost in the forest industry alone since 2007.
· Campbell's claim: When asked what steps his government would take to address poverty, Gordon Campbell said "we have to continue to work with other governments to eliminate costs that we impose on businesses."
· Fact: Campbell's gas tax will pile an estimated $1.3 billion of new costs onto businesses over the next three years, costs which will hit working-class families particularly hard. As we face an economic downturn, the B.C. Liberals are increasing taxes for small businesses and working families.

Now HST on top of all this
Too bad more didnt vote last election.

The HST cost to the small service industry businesses that pay minimum wage is I'll bet more than an equivalent of what it would have cost those very same businesses to pay the higher minimum wage in step with the premiers inner circles level of pay raises... instead the new HST cost to the service industry will go to government coffers to pay for multinational corporate tax cuts, so the off shore bcprofits can be larger.... meanwhile single family households on minimum wage go further behind into poverty.....

I don't get the logic behind the BC liberal strategy when its small business that has generated the vast majority of the jobs over the last two decades and not the multinational corporations. They're sucking the capital out of the pockets of the citizens of BC.

So I guess your all going to go to the College and try and stop this HST. Good.

Gordon Campbells corruption and deceit far surpass the old days of the Social Credit or NDP.

agreed

Watch Campbell diffuse the building opposition by promising to lower the BC part of the HST to 5% from 7%. And tell us he's listening to "the will of the people."

This is the Coquihalla Highway protest all over again. The collective anger of "the people" rose to a cresendo and stopped the privatization of the road, just as it should have. But where was that anger when the toll was subsequently raised from $ 10 to $13, on a road that former Premier Bill Bennett said had been paid off years before?

By then it had dissipated, and we were still getting stung, with barely an audible wimper.

Those who don't realize the type of politicians we're dealing with in Campbell and Co. were easily bamboozled then that the increase was necessary. It wasn't.

Just as many will be bamboozled again when he promises to lower the take on the HST. Even then we'll still be paying more tax, but many will be unwilling to press the issue any further, figuring we've won some great victory for 'democracy'.

But really, all we'll be doing then will still be 'subsidizing' our exports out of our own pockets through the HST, while going that much shorter in meeting our own costs of living because of it.

Sign VanderZalm's Petition, by all means. And attend any protests you can. But don't be bought off by any promised reduction into thinking this tax is somehow necessary. It isn't.

(Eagleone:-)"I don't get the logic behind the BC liberal strategy when its small business that has generated the vast majority of the jobs over the last two decades and not the multinational corporations. They're sucking the capital out of the pockets of the citizens of BC."
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They're largely "service" jobs now, Eagle, not "manufacturing" ones. They tend to merely 'transfer' existing money, rather than 'create' any new production that new 'credit'(money) can be issued against.

It's much like saying we could both live well by "taking in each other's laundry." You pay me for my doing yours, and I pay you for your doing mine. And Campbell collects 7% HST every time we send each other a bill.

Of course, we get Input Tax Credits on the tax paid on the cost of the detergent! Water, too, when he starts taxing that. That comes off the 7% charged on the whole bill, into which we each have to "cost" these items, including the HST we've already paid on them, as well as our labour.

While I wholeheartedly support any efforts to kill the HST, I can also see the writing on the wall; the HST is a done deal, we are not going to change that.
Campbell and co. may well be defeated next election, depending on how acute
our collective memory is, but will things REALLY be any different under the only other party that stands a chance? ( BC ndp ) I think not. We need only look at the b.s. we all put up with during the last ndp government. Different players now ( Carole James ) but probably not much different government at the end of the day.
metalman.

Well said metalman, couldn't agree more. The $1.5B we're getting from the feds has made this a slam dunk in the provincial government's eyes.

By all means, go out and protest, sign your online petitions, whatever... but like the GST, this is a done deal.