Liberals running away from HST St. Paul’s candidate promises to “protect tenants” from HST while Ignatieff slams “Harper Sales Tax”
September 8, 2009
Toronto – More and more Liberals are distancing themselves from unpopular and unfair plans to harmonize provincial sales taxes with the GST – and the latest is McGuinty’s own candidate in St. Paul’s:
Liberal candidate Eric Hoskins has been distributing an “open letter” to tenants calling on the McGuinty Government to make a “commitment that there will also be no rent increases because of the potential impact of the SST [sic].” In a press release he promised, “I will work to ensure… that tenants are protected from any increase in cost because of the Single Sales Tax." (Press Release, August 28, 2009)
Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has slammed harmonization and referred to it as the “Harper Sales Tax” (Globe and Mail, September 4, 2009).
Other federal Liberals have gone farther. Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh slammed the federal government for their role in imposing an HST and declared: “They should pay at the polls for this tax in a recession.” (Twitter, August 20, 2009)
Federal Liberal candidates have been instructed to refer to the tax as the "Harper Sales Tax" and to assert an HST will hurt growing sectors, specifically the service industry and tourism. (“Federal Liberals fear HST backlash”, Vancouver Sun, Sept 3, 2009)
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