HST mud.

You just noticed gas is 10 cents more.  You’re probably pissed.  Maybe you’ve seen the list.  The list of what’s getting taxed and what’s not.   Gas realistically should cost way more anyway, because (almost always) the environmental costs are externalized.

Before you go on an Atlas Shrugged tirade, know some things.  Based on reductions in your income tax (which we probably didn’t notice), the nominal HST rebate cheques, and upcoming HSTness, the burden on the average consumer is minimal.  Rich people will pay more, boo hoo.  It’s true that some new costs are burdened on the consumer’s shoulders.  However, lower income status Ontarians will face the smallest brunt.

The thing that really rubs wrong is how Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak is vehemently opposing the HST.  This guy is supposed to be a pro-jobs, pro-business, economy-centric conservative.  When economists from around the world believe it’s the best way to maintain competitiveness and help Ontario businesses, completely inane politicization ensues.  Don’t tell me you’re an NDP man of the people Mr. Hudak.  He is disagreeing simply because political parties should never actually agree right?   The infuriating, terrible 2s, GOP method of NO.

I totally gave Hudak a chance.  If he was reasonable, this would be an interesting political race.  But this HST opposition is proof that he’s exactly the worst person for the job.  When you instantly contradict yourself right out of the gate, I’m out.  Read a great Globe article on the HST here .  This is your education.  Then if you want, read why economists like it here and here.   Happy wading.

News week.

Only 70 starred items to choose from this week. 

Politics

• Jim Prentice questions the purpose of Copenhagen – What a cop out.  Evidently Copenhagen is to find “common ground” and not to table an international agreement.  Common ground means they will agree that coffee in the morning is delicious and Kelly Clarkson only had one good song.

• Ontario gets first full time Green Party Leader – Mike Schreiner has been crowned Green Party leader of Ontario.  Watch a video of him here talk about food secruity/sustainability.  This guy is speaking my language.

• Harmonized Sales Tax getting tabled at Queen’s Park – Controversial bill arrives, gets hilarious opposition from tax-heavy NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

• Being a gay politician in Canada is juuust fine – more research is showing that people like George Smitherman have nothing to worry about – Canadians are showing maturity and tolerance towards their politicians.  We win.

• The media does NOT have a liberal bias – the fine art of punditry.

• LocalTVMatters vs. StopTheTVTax – the battle over local TV.

Science

• Some more insight into the mass dinosaur extinction – More evidence showing that asteroids in India (not Mexico) may have played the largest role in this mass extinction period.

• Can academics be entrepreneurial? – New York Times blog looks at how academics can unleash small business to help innovate.

• Musicians great for party socializing – research showing that musicians are better at repeating a sentence heard in the presence of background noise.

• Why can humans speak and chimps can’t? – finding the gene exclusively for speech and language.

• There is water on the moon.

• We’re aurally screwed – New Scientist shows how even quieter sounds can still cause ear damage.

Green

• Water purification failing in developing countries – easy water treatment for the poor remains a difficult process.

• Dwindling water in Australia – learn how a developing country is dealing with stressing water management issues.

• Skyscraper farming – A more indepth look at vertical (urban) farming.  Stretch those Malthusian philosophies, you guyyyys.

• Global tuna stocks in worrisome supply – sushi cravings causing major concern in global tuna stocks as fishermen are catching triple the limit

• Is solar energy competitively priced ? – with Smart Grid additions, found to be cheaper than coal.

• Putting a price tag on nature – Brtish economist part of the UNEP is trying to associate costs with our waters, trees, and air.  Good f’ing luck to you trying to put something completely unboxable into a box.  Way to go economists, good luck with that.

• Combining heat and power for a one two energy punch – it’s efficient, simple, and doable.  A closer look into CHP plants and how they’ll help our energy problems.

Total awesomeness

• Mustard Tigers ! – Trailer Park Boys back with a new show, The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour.

Harmonize.

Click for an interesting editorial on Dalton’s Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), an effort to combine the GST and PST in Ontario.  Opposing views (centralized around new provincial Conservative leader Tim Hudak) cite higher prices for many regular consumer goods and would discourage new business from coming to Toronto.  Editor Marcus Gee affirms that this tax would be great for Ontario’s capital.