The new 8% gas tax

As this column is being written, I find myself “on-call” for votes in the House of Commons on the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which can best be thought of as a new 8 percent gas tax for the people of Northern Ontario. I strongly oppose this new gas tax, as do all of my New Democrat colleagues in the House of Commons and Queen’s Park, but it will pass federally because Harper and his Conservatives, Ignatieff and his Liberals, and those other guys from Quebec support it.
This new gas tax means that the families of Northern Ontario will - again - suffer disproportionately at the hands of their government compared to families in the southern part of the province. For his part, Mr. Ignatieff probably thinks we can all just jump on public transit if we have a problem with high gas prices, and Mr. Harper probably doesn’t care because he is focused on picking up 10 more seats to get his majority in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver and other places where people have travel options. In Northern Ontario we rarely have such options. When we drive to work, visit family and friends, pick up our mail and go grocery shopping we have to drive and the federal Conservatives and Liberals have chosen to make those daily activities 8 percent more expensive for us starting July 1, 2010.
There are many Conservative and Liberal MPs from our region and from around the country that claim to care about gas pricing, but they sit all too ready today to cast a vote which will increase those same prices 8 percent at the bat of their leader’s eye. Greg Rickford (Kenora) should be asked why he has chosen to raise the price of a tank of gas by $4 for every person in his riding. The same can be asked of Anthony Rota (Nipising-Timmiskaming) and Tony Clement of (Parry Sound-Muskoka). Each of our ridings depend heavily on tourism and a healthy flow of American travelers to help drive our local economies, so why are New Democrat MPs the only ones fighting this huge government sponsored 8 percent hike in the price of gas? The short answer is that the Conservative and Liberal MPs cited above have sold out their constituents to help some far away friends in big cities, and New Democrat MPs have stood up in the House of Commons to defend the interests of our friends and families in small towns.
It now has to be said, without any doubt or confusion, that the Conservatives and Liberals simply don’t understand Northern Ontarians or simply don’t care about how their policies and actions affect families living at the top of our electoral map. It’s like we don’t even exist to the big thinkers in the Conservative and Liberal parties. What’s worse is that the MPs on the blue team and the red team from our region have done absolutely nothing to change this sad fact. Simply put; what needs to happen now is that the people of Northern Ontario must wipe the Conservatives and Liberals completely off the face of our electoral map since we have long ago been wiped off the face of theirs.
As I wrap up this column, I am now being called to a vote in the House of Commons. The Liberal Party and the Conservative Party have decided - together - that they want their HST legislation passed quickly, and have agreed to change the Standing Orders of the House of Commons so that there can be no debate, and so no witnesses can be called to testify about the HST in committee. The Members of those parties simply do not have the courage to call and hear from witnesses who cannot afford to pay the hundreds of extra dollars in taxes that the HST will foist upon their families, so they have simply chosen to ram this legislation through Parliament in order to spare themselves the pain of democracy, and to subject you to the pain of an 8 percent increase in the price of gas.