The blame game

It's still not clear exactly what it will take to either put the brakes on the HST or turn it into a decisive issue in favour of the NDP as the lone party which has taken a consistent stand against it, But this kind of development would appear to be a major help on all counts:

The federal Tories pushed, prodded and ultimately paid Ontario to adopt the harmonized sales tax and any effort to disown those actions smells like a rodent, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said yesterday.

"There are always rats in these debates," Duncan said, without naming any names.

"It's always funny to watch those individuals who are trying to deny the $4.3 billion their government is giving us. It's fun to watch."

Owen Sound-Bruce-Grey MP Larry Miller raised the ire of his provincial seatmate and fellow Tory Bill Murdoch earlier this year for disavowing his government's role in the tax, and Sarnia's Pat Davidson has been quoted as encouraging seniors to fight against the HST as well.

But Duncan said Ontario wouldn't, and couldn't, merge its retail sales tax with the federal GST for a 13% HST without plenty of encouragement and $4.3 billion of federal money.

"The feds certainly pushed us," Duncan said adding any doubt about where the federal Conservatives stand on the HST should be erased when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduces enabling legislation sometime before this coming March.

Of course, both the federal and provincial levels of government will have to try to justify the HST enough in order to pass legislation to implement it. But with both now engaged in finger-pointing as to who's to blame for tax harmonization (and at least some apparent concern within both governing parties), there's a significant possibility that Duncan and Flaherty will end up having far less attention to direct toward the task of convincing citizens to accept a tax hike for corporate benefit. And the more the ministers who signed onto the deal send the message that they don't want to take responsibility for the HST, the easier it'll be for HST opponents to convince the public that it's an indefensible choice.