There is nothing wrong with being a Christian or a Conservative.
But when the two come together with former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm in the middle, all kinds of ugliness starts to form.
The ethically challenged Zalm, who presided over B.C. during one of its darker eras, has come out of the woodwork to lead the charge against the HST, the Harmonized Sales Tax or the Hated Sales Tax, depending on which side you are on.
Like before when in office, Vander Zalm is using a populist platform to push his Conservative Christian tunnel vision.
“We’re trying to accommodate all people, and in the process losing everything,” a statement attributed to him on the Joytv 10’s Web site reads.
Vander Zalm’s dream nation will be a one colour-creed zone because he says that the rise of multiculturalism has damaged Canada’s culture.
In a TV interview propelled by his dangerous awakenings, Zalm preached that our value system is being eroded because our religious values are waning.
This from a delusional Dutchman who should know better about stones and glass houses, given he has a nursery business.
It was not too long ago that Zalm was described by a government inquiry to having a sincere belief that no conflict exists as long as the public is not aware of what’s going on.
This disgraced premier used his pulpit to ban funding for doctor-approved abortions and then went on to be found guilty of B.C.’s conflict-of-interest rules in relation to the peddling of his Fantasy Gardens to an Asian billionaire.
If we are to accuse the Gordon Campbell Liberals of deceit for introducing the HST only after being reelected, then the anti-HST forces should get better leaders at the helm.
Right now it is led by an axis of drivel with Zalm, the ineffective NDP boss Carole James and the B.C. Conservative Party.
James wants to play second-fiddle to the Zalm-baloneys while the B.C. Conservative party hopes that no one remembers its promise to investigate the benefits of the HST for B.C., which was made during the last provincial election campaign.
Last weekend there were 19 anti-HST rallies around B.C.
Nearly everyone at these rallies agreed that the protest is more about how the HST was introduced by the Gordon Campbell Liberals rather than the fact that it was done.
But it will be prudent for B.C. taxpayers to look deeper at what some of the speakers at these rallies were saying.
A study by Toronto Dominion Bank economists estimates the move will reduce the cost of doing business by a total of $6.9 billion in Ontario and B.C. while increasing prices by 0.7 percentage points.
Translated that means, we will be paying a little bit more on some goods and services but the long term indicators are these costs will be offset by stronger sustainable income growth.
The most telling aspect of the study was the level of exaggeration propagated by the anti-HST forces.
That should be no surprise to any of us, given that Vander Zalm is the poster boy of the anti-HST movement in B.C.