Modeling Journey

Derek DeCloet, in an article in today's Globe & Mail headed In BC's HST debate, passion trumps common sense, comes to the defence of Premier Gordon Campbell, and in doing so misses a large part of what is actually happening in Canada's California province:

His Liberal Party’s standing is as far underwater as BP’s leaky Macondo well and his personal popularity is roughly equal to that of Tony Hayward at a Louisiana shrimpers’ convention. Last week, one of his cabinet ministers resigned in protest and Mr. Vander Zalm, of all people, is now throwing mud in the Premier’s direction, calling him an “elected dictator.”

And for what? Because Mr. Campbell dared to do the right thing. His government’s decision to scrap B.C.’s antiquated provincial sales tax in favour of one that’s harmonized with the federal sales tax may have turned the Premier into the pariah-of-the-moment. It’s also one of the best things he has done since taking office. The HST’s critics, an alliance of knee-jerk populists, political opportunists and the financially clueless, ought to go jump in the Georgia Strait. Better yet, they should take a basic economics course...