HST Referendum & Postal Workers' Dispute

Courtesy of Victoria's Secrets (Mike Smyth's Blog - Political Columnist with the Vancouver Province):

So the government moves up the date of the mail-in referendum on the HST.
Then the mail system shuts down.

Coincidence, you say? Yeah, right. And Osama bin Laden was "buried at sea."
Some people out there smell a rat. Think about it: Support for the HST has been slowly rising, but not fast enough for the government's liking. Most decided voters are still opposed to the HST, with the deadline for returning referendum ballots rapidly approaching.

Therefore, it would be in the government's interest to delay said voting deadline, right? So people will have more time to see the government's "neutral" TV ads about the HST, and change their minds about the tax.

So maybe the government timed the referendum to coincide with the Canada Post labour dispute, you see? That way, Elections B.C. will extend the voting deadlines, more people will get brainwashed about how great the HST is, and then they will vote to keep the HST.

"Obviously, there's some concerns the government has chosen this method to have the referendum," NDP leader Adrian Dix told CHNL radio. "This is likely a delay thing."

Ah, the plot thickens. What did the government know, and when did they know it, about the Canada Post labour disruption when they set the referendum date?

"We did know that they had taken a strike vote, which is not unusual during negotiations," said Attorney General Barry Penner. "And that's why we've been in contact with Elections BC and they assured us that they had sufficient statutory authority to deal with any timing or interruptions in terms of the mail-in referendum ballot.

"But certainly, when we were making the change to move the date forward, I didn't hear the NDP saying that they knew there was going to be a strike, and we didn't know that either when we were making these changes back in April."

Good point. As a matter of fact, the NDP voted in favour of moving up the date of the referendum to June, from the originally scheduled September. Hmm, maybe the NDP are in on it?

Then again, the federal NDP is threatening to filibuster the Harper government's back-to-work bill, which would delay the Canada Post lockout, increase the likelihood of extending the referendum voting deadline, and thereby helping the pro-HST forces. That's right: Jack Layton is helping the pro-HST campaign. What a tangled web.

Then again _ again _ if the government's goal was to delay the referendum, why would they have moved up the date in the first place? Hmm....

Coincidence or conspiracy? Believe what you want, folks, but know this: the truth is out there.

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