Reality check: HST strikes again, inflation rises.

Stephen Harper’s new tax has been eating away at Canadians’ wallets; it’s becoming clearer every day as the impacts of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) are reported.

Today Statistics Canada is reporting an increase in inflation and directly linking the uptick to the HST. What went up?

• Gas at the pumps up 4.8%
• Electricity prices up 9.8%
• Cost of housing up 2.9%

Of course the housing market not only suffers from inflation but sagging sales numbers too.

Housing sales were down 30% from July in 2009 and the Canadian Real Estate Association directly blames this drop on the HST in Ontario and British Columbia. – Financial Post, August 16, 2010

This new tax ushered in by the Stephen Harper’s federal Conservative government, and supported by Ignatieff and the federal Liberals, is hurting Canadians.

While the negative impacts continue to compound, ordinary Canadians are beginning to wonder: what happened to all those promises of the HST being good for the economy?