Politics and business shamefully hand-in-hand

The Wildrose Alliance Party has now become the second-most popular party in Alberta, just behind Ed Stelmach's ruling Conservatives, and the gap is closing as the provincial election draws closer.

Meanwhile in B.C., the conga line of cabinet ministers fanning out across the province to try to sell the hated BS (blended sales) Tax, or HST, continues unabated.

The merits of the tax itself have become secondary to the questions of credibility and ethics raised by how and when Campbell and his government introduced the tax.

The Liberal Big Lie (LBL) goes like this ...

-- "The deficit will only be $497 million"

-- "Read my lips, we have no plans to implement the HST"

-- "We had no idea how bad things were until after the election"

-- "We have to take this $1.6 billion to protect jobs, education and health care"

-- "We're doing this because business asked us to."

The latest variation of the LBL came from Small Business Minister Ian Black recently in Prince George. "Finance Minister Flaherty told Colin Hansen that if B.C. doesn't agree to implement the HST now, they will have to wait two years."

A quick call later and Flaherty's office refused to endorse that statement, and added that implementing the HST was the sole choice of the province. More lies.

It strains credibility to believe that Campbell and the Palace Guard of advisers and sycophants that he surrounds himself with didn't know that we were facing a much bigger deficit during the campaign, and that he had every intention of implementing the BS Tax/HST after the election.

The sad part is that following the accounting scandals of Enron, Bre-X and Nortel, not to mention the orgy of greed that led to the economic meltdown sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, business has still not learned its lesson.

While business leaders like John Beatty, chair of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, and Virginia Greene of the Business Council of B.C., along with other local organizations across B.C. fall over themselves trying to be the loudest in endorsing the HST, there is barely a mention of the lies and deceit that accompanied its introduction.

Rather than show the leadership that used to be expected of business leaders in our communities, they are content to hold their noses and take the money. They don't dare openly criticize the government lest they lose a contract or a grant. The same "ends justify the means" thinking that led to the financial scandals and hardships of recent years is still alive and well and living in B.C.

By abdicating this leadership role, our business leaders and the organizations they purport to represent not only do a great disservice to our democracy, but they feed the cynicism that has led to barely half of eligible voters turning out to the polls.

Politicians and business leaders have become the new snake oil salesmen of our generation, a title they continue to work hard to deserve. They can't be trusted.

In the end, the BS Tax will pass, and life in B.C. will go on, albeit with the soiled image of the traditional leaders in our communities left a little more tattered and tarnished, all for the sake of one man's and one party's political neck. Shame.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 26, 2009 A15