The raw and unpredictable force behind Hurricane Irene is a fitting end to the summer of 2011.
At the time of this writing, she hasn’t reached the North American east coast yet, but she managed to shake up the west coast with BC’s HST results.
In my own humble opinion, the 2010 petitions should have been given more weight by provincial politicians. Instead, this large representation of public opinion was discarded and replaced with an expensive referendum that the government hoped would be met with voter apathy and forgetfulness.
The referendum results were as much - or more - about the public telling its elected representatives that No really does mean No (or, in this case, YES) than about contending with another tax.
Now the Liberals are saying itwill take up to two years to erase the HST. As our MLA Harry Lali pointed out to me today, it didn’t take them that long to implement it.
Lali didn’t think the Liberals would dare call an election after this defeat, but I’m not so sure about that. It’s a way of hitting the reset button - either you campaign to bring back the HST and if elected, hold to the only campaign promise you ever intended to follow through on, or wipe your hands of the mess if you’re defeated and let the new government deal with it.
There’s no end to the fun and excitement in Victoria, but I’ve had my very own personal roller coaster at home this summer.
In May, Tool Man and myself burned our mortgage. This is the third house we’ve had together and the only one we’ve stuck around long enough to pay off.
Last week my oldest brother and his wife packed up their five cats and moved back to Canada after 11 years of living in beautiful Mexico.
And tomorrow is Tool Man’s last day at work. He’s been working in Chase since 2008, but tomorrow he’s retiring and moving home.
Hurricane Irene about sums it all up.
Wendy Coomber is the editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal