NDP & 2 maverick Tories lead fight against HST
durablepsyche
should be stopped. Time for another federal election.
________________________________________________________________
More HST debate fallout after sit-in
December 03, 2009
Ontarians will get more time to have a say on the HST, thanks to an NDP-brokered
compromise for more public input on the controversial tax.
An extra half-day of hearings was announced following the end of a 44-hour sit-in by two
maverick Progressive Conservative MPPs, who theatrically pounded their desks and tried to
disrupt proceedings at the Ontario Legislature.
A concession on additional public hearing time � which the Liberal government adamantly
opposed � was reached after the New Democrats won a motion allowing for hearings to begin
at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, a midnight hour that party leader Andrea Horwath admitted was
impractical, but would have met the opposition's objective of more time.
The tactic worked as leverage with the Liberals, who agreed to add a half-day session on
Monday rather than hold hearings in the middle of the night.
It was within the rules of the Legislature, unlike the Tory antics, Horwath said.
"We are pleased our efforts have paid off."
Thursday's hearings will be held from 8 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. and again from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Another half-day session Monday will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The deal came a few hours after bleary-eyed Tory MPPs Bill Murdoch (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound)
and Randy Hillier (Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) emerged from the Legislature at
9:06 a.m. after two nights of sleeping on couches in the adjacent opposition lobby.
The pair, who began their protest at 1:30 p.m. Monday to demand hearings outside Toronto
on the harmonized sales tax, claimed victory. "We gained significantly from this because
the taxpayers of this province know there's a party that stands up for them and will fight
for them," a hoarse Hillier told reporters.
Murdoch insisted that the duo "didn't give in" by ending their standoff.
Speaker Steve Peters has exiled them from the Legislature for the remainder of the
parliamentary session, which may not end until the next election in October 2011.
Tory Leader Tim Hudak said his caucus mates were "standing on principle."
"Sometimes in politics you have to fight the good fight. Sometimes in politics an issue
rises to the fore that is so wrong that you need to take extraordinary measures to try to
set it right," he said.
While Hudak opposes the melding of the 8 per cent provincial sales tax and the 5 per cent
federal GST, he has declined to say he would scrap it if elected in 2011.
He has pointedly refused to lobby his influential friends in the Conservative government
of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which signed the deal with McGuinty and bankrolled the
harmonization with $4.3 billion in federal money.
Proponents of the HST claim it will help create some 591,000 jobs over the next decade by
making Ontario more competitive.
Pat Bay
"durablepsyche" <durabl...@home.ca> wrote in message
news:vaXRm.14640$_b5....@newsfe22.iad...
> Good for them! It's Harper and his pressure on the provinces to introduce
> the HST that should be stopped. Time for another federal election.
If there was another federal election would you actually get out there and
actually do any work to elect the NDP or Liberals? I mean real work,
not coming into a newsgroup pounding the keys to put in another opinion, but
actually gettting out there knocking on doors (make it easy, just
20 houses per night per week. Never mind that myself and a few other
volunteers had done 40 houses a night for several days a week), or
get out there and pound in signs, or drive supporters to the polls or work
the phones.
So if there is another federal election, the opportunity is there to get out
there and actually DO something rather than squeak and squeal
to a newsgroup that many Canadians don't give a rat's ass about.