Anti-PST Hike Rally

Yesterday evening, I attended the rally against the proposed PST hike at the Legislature. To my surprise, several hundred people, many of whom were seething mad, gathered around the front steps to voice their displeasure at the most recent tax grab by the Non Democratic Party. 

For those who are unaware, Manitoba Premier “Greasy Greg” Selinger has proposed to raise the provincial sales tax from 7% to 8%. In doing so, he also proposes to do away with existing legislation that requires a referendum before the PST can be increased. In short, he is again acting like a Central American tin-horn dictator who has an outrageous spending problem.

Many carried homemade signs such as this, while others proudly displayed signs distributed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, organizers of the rally.

There was someone dressed as Pinocchio carrying a sign. Selinger has probably needed plastic surgery to cut down the size of his growing nose since he’s broken so many promises throughout the course of his regime. He had specifically promised not to raise taxes during the election campaign two years ago and look where we are today.

More signs on display:

You know things are bad when Manitobans begin clamoring for Gary Doer’s return.

These two protesters struck me as particularly hypocritical:

As the sign says, “Taxation is Theft”:

Yet, those two protesters were wearing paraphernalia from the Blue Bombers and the Mark Chipman Personal Hockey Club. Both organizations receive massive amounts of the proceeds from that theft. As I wrote in a recent tweet, someone has to pay for your taxpayer-funded toys. It might as well be you.

The crowd gathered around to hear the speakers.

There was Colin Craig of the CTF, a speaker from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and an anti-poverty advocate whose name I didn’t catch.

For some reason, Dr. Jon Gerrard was invited. Never missing an opportunity to get his face in front of the cameras, he spoke to the crowd. I suspect that he would have also appeared at a rally in support of a tax hike. He is a political opportunist desperate for publicity, but not terribly successful at getting it.

The last speaker was the Leader of the Opposition, the newly-elected MLA for Fort Whyte, Brian Pallister, spotted here in the crowd:

Crawling out of the cave that he’s been sequestered in for months, he spoke to a riled-up gathering waving his arms as if his voice was hand-activated.

What Pallister failed to address was why he and his predecessor have been so deathly silent while the Non Democratic Party throws money around like drunken sailors. Where were they when Selinger threw another $200 million at the Bombers for their new saloon in Fort Garry? Pallister barely made a peep when Selinger decided to build a casino for Chipman that would provide him with an annual $12 million stipend to play NHL general manager with our tax money.

It was good to see so many people turn out for this cause. But I have no optimism that Selinger will listen. Not only do I expect the PST increase to go through, I expect that many of you will turn around and vote for him in the next election.

Selinger continues to take Manitobans for suckers.

Sadly, he’s probably bang-on in his assessment.