85 per cent oppose HST: poll
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Updated: August 10, 2009 9:35 AM
B.C. residents overwhelmingly oppose the provincial government's planned harmonized sales tax (HST), a poll by Ipsos Reid shows.
Pollsters found 85 per cent of those surveyed oppose the tax and nearly nine out of 10 believe it will hurt their finances.
Just 12 per cent support the HST, which effectively adds seven per cent tax to various services previously exempt from provincial sales tax, including utility bills, funerals, hair care, restaurant meals, real estate fees, movie tickets and air fares.
It's an unprecedented level of opposition, said Ipsos Reid vice-president Kyle Braid.
"I haven't seen this level of opposition to a government initiative before, but it's real and it's intense," he said in an interview.
By comparison, he said, B.C. residents' opposition to the Liberal government's carbon tax averaged only about 60 per cent.
And he says those who dislike the HST are more intense in their opposition – the number who say they're strongly opposed exceeds the total opposition to the carbon tax.
"It's in a different league," Braid said, adding opposition is universal across B.C.'s regions and demographic groups.
So far the B.C. government has shown no signs of reversing under pressure, as it did in the face of public outrage over proposed MLA pay hikes in 2007.
Braid said polls then found 67 per cent opposition to the MLA pay hikes.
He says the strong opposition to the HST means the Liberals may well have have been defeated by the NDP in May's provincial election had they told voters in advance of their intention to blend the PST and GST.
The Liberals took 46 per cent of the popular vote, four points more than the NDP, and Braid says it's easy to imagine two per cent of Liberal voters could have switched parties over the issue.
"I think it's safe to say there are more angry Liberals than that."
Ipsos Reid conducted the poll online, surveying 720 B.C. residents. It's considered accurate to 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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