Ontario election. Vote LIBERAL!

On the gasoline tax:

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NDP - http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1014428--less-pain-at-the-pumps-ontario-ndp-vows-to-cut-hst-on-gas

New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath promises to siphon one percentage point off the 13 per cent HST on gasoline annually for four years if the party is elected on Oct. 6.

That would work out to a savings of a penny for every dollar you spend at the pumps during the first year, rising to just under a nickel by 2015.

“Every upward tick in gas prices is compounded by the HST,” Horwath said Friday at Exhibition Place as she kicked off the party's weekend pre-election convention.

The tax cut will cost a total of $500 million by the time it is fully phased in.

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PC - http://www.hstincanada.com/2011/07/hst-issue-causes-ripples-for-ontario-election/

Also getting on the HST election bandwagon are the provincial Tories. Conservative candidate Tim Hudak is vowing to not only reduce the HST burden placed on Ontario families but also the eco tax introduced by Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty. Hudak claims that only his government would truly relieve families with their plan to remove the HST and Debt Retirement Charge off of heating and energy bills as well as reduce income taxes which Hudak states only “add to the family burden.”

And while the competing parties address the HST issue at hand, Premier McGuinty has yet to offer voters any relief on the HST issue. In fact, McGuinty continues to maintain his stance stating that in order to meet the needs of the province by making reforms to the education and health care system, the HST will need to stay in place to generate revenues.

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D - as I have said before - and analyzed in depth (see earlier blog entries), fossil fuels cost far more in terms of health care costs and erosion of the tax base than can be justified by their present tax level.
Hell, I think fossil fuel ought to be TWICE as expensive to incoroporate negative externalities in their price.
The user should pay.

So here we have an election where the 'left' and 'right' parties have virtually indistinguishable platforms.
There are vague murmerings about health care (old folks) and poverty (NDP - no details).

D - there are many ways to help the poor. The Liberal education grant certainly will do so, and is not available to the wealthy. It resets tuition rates for the working poor/middle class to where it was about a decade ago.

For that matter, both welfare and the minimum wage - as well as drug 'n dental coverage - can be used to help hard pressed Ontarian families.

There is a serious problem with subsidizing fossil fuel usage - gasoline in vehicles, and heating oil/natural gas and electricity in households.

Problem #1: at the same time fossil fuel tax cuts reduce tax revenue and thereby hamstrings fiscal policy (spending), it increases health care costs via pollution, as well as via vehicle accident rates and severity.

Problem #2: it makes a mockery of our commitment to CO2 reduction, removing any incentive to conserve. Canada made a commitment to the post-Kyoto Coperhagen round.

Problem #3: it actively backfires in a very basic economic model way. SUPPLY and DEMAND. If gas is cheap, we use more of it - and demand increases compared to supply. Conversely, a higher (HST) tax on gasoline (and home fuels) reduces demand as households turn down the thermostat, or drive slower, or upgrade insulation. In other words, the HST on gasoline and home energy is unlikely to cost nearly as much as static #s would suggest.

Problem #4: it removes the incentive for efficiency upgrades, either from renters (temporary measures such as plastic wrap over windows in winter), as well as more extensive ones for home owners (upgraded wall insulation, window insulation, et al.).

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I personally rent a townhouse. It was clearly built pre-oil crisis. It has negligible insulation and loft ceilings in the upstair bedrooms. The furnace air is cool by the time it travels up the front wall. My room hovered at 13 Celsius for weeks on end during last winter's cold snap. We conserve as much as we can. There is no incentive for the landlord to upgrade this with installed attics or exterior wall insulation sheet cladding. A sufficiently high tax on home energy use would make renters consider utilities as well as the basic rent cost.

I drive to work in a small subcompact to the edge of a nearby town. I drive like a granny. These days, we call that hypermiling. Many drivers in large inefficient vehicles drive as if they are in the Indy 500.
I think it's safe to say gas prices are NOT that high.

Whenever there is a smog alert, I like to count the # of passengers in 4-5 person sedans (and bigger). There are rarely any passengers at all.

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I calculated that the Convservatives estimate economic growth by 2015 about 1/2 percent above the Liberal projections. Conversely, the NDP lowballed GDP growth instead. BUT did not even bother to release a complete detailed budget projection. In other words,

1) The Conservatives 'cooked the books' with cheery economic forecasts to make their tax cuts look less absurd,

2) The NDP are just hiding the books - period.

I'm voting Liberal. In fact, for the first time post-University in my adult life, I'm getting involved.
Heck, I did not even vote for the last decade. There was never any platform worth getting involved in.
That is NOT true in this election.
I'm voting LIBERAL.