I'm not sure governments necessarily learn the lessons provided by history, but the recent HST fiasco offers a valuable teaching point.
As much as it was, and continues to be, maligned, the harmonized sales tax is not some evil plan hatched by Gordon Campbell as a parting shot to British Columbians. Three Maritime provinces have had the HST for more than a decade, while Ontario implemented it on the same day B.C. did last year.
No one likes taxes, but given it's in existence in four other provinces at the moment, and there's some sound economic thinking behind it, it's not inconceivable it could have also been introduced here without all the uproar.
That's where the lesson part comes in. The result of the province-wide mailin referendum was so close that it was likely the introduction factor, not the pros and cons of the tax itself, that tipped the balance against the HST and prompted a return to the old PST/GST model.
I heard many people say they didn't feel strongly one way or the other about the tax - particularly after the promised reduction to 10 per cent made the financial impact a wash for most - but were angered by the way the Liberals went about bringing it in.
In Ontario, the government announced in March of 2009 it would be introducing the HST the following summer, but during the B.C. election campaign two months later, Liberals rejected any suggestions they'd be doing the same. Within weeks of being re-elected, the HST was suddenly on the table.
In hindsight, this sleight of hand ultimately doomed the tax.
The planned reduction to 10 per cent went a long way to propping up pitiful approval numbers for the HST, so when coupled with the benefits that business, and ultimately the economy as a whole, would realize, it appeared Premier Christy Clark just might pull this one out of the fire.
That turned out to be the case in some ridings, including Delta South, but the tax ultimately fell when 54.73 per cent of those province-wide rejected it. The relatively narrow defeat has opened the door to much second-guessing, including what could have been done differently to convince just five per cent of British Columbians to vote the other way.
You don't have to look too deep to find an answer to that one: Don't lie to us and don't foist something onto us without at least a little consultation.
In the end, it's really just a lesson in common sense, but don't be disappointed if governments at all levels don't end up heeding it.
