Well Mr. Premier, it would appear that there are only two options for you and your government regarding the Hated Sales Tax now that the courts have decided that they agree with your statement that the whole exercise was “a victory for democracy”.

Actually I was kind of surprised that you were familiar with the term “democracy” seeing as how Webster’s defines democracy as “a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation…” I know that you caught the “supreme power” bit, but I haven’t seen much from you about the “vested in the people” part.

Webster’s further defines democracy as “the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority”. Now that must really test your grit. (Notice the play on words?) Imagine “the people” challenging your decisions! The nerve! Just who the hell do they think they are, eh? Oh yeah, they are “the source of political authority” and from the most recent collection of signatures and the court’s confirmation of this right, I’m guessing that you must seriously be trying to find ways to cancel the fall sitting of the Legislative Assembly. I’ll wager right now that you must be deeply envious of Mr. Harper’s ability to prorogue parliament whenever he gets his political shorts in a knot.

Fortunately, we in BC have another tool at our disposal to address the issue of politicians who disregard the will of the people - we can recall you. And guess what? If you ignore our will, the Vander Zalm hordes will descend on you and your ministerial cronies like the biblical plague of swarming locusts in ancient Egypt.

Some lessons are hard learned and some are never learned. Just for the record, and because I love discovering the root meaning of words, did you know that Webster’s defines arrogance as “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions”. Remind you of anybody?

Aside from the HST, there seem to be a few other items that have surfaced during the past few weeks that bear some consideration and attention from you and your band of merry ministers.

It seems that BC’s Auditor General is not in agreement with your government’s method of accounting which he states departs from “generally accepted accounting principles”. According to John Doyle, there’s approximately $73 million dollars that your government somehow forgot to consider when announcing the already historic deficit of $1.77 billion. Mr. Doyle figures that the real deficit is $1.85 billion.

I still chuckle when I recall that you stated unequivocally during the last election, that the deficit would be no more than $495 million. I know you’re not an economist (unlike Stephen Harper) but gosh, being that far off base must have shocked even you. And now, on top of that there’s another $73 million that has surfaced to be added to the overall deficit.

Then there’s the whole debacle with your government’s newest cash grab – online gambling. I hear the site’s back up. I also recall a promise from the BC Liberals when your party was in opposition in 2001. The quote was: “A BC Liberal government will stop the expansion of gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families”. Tsk, intriguing how one’s moral position becomes flexible when in power. There also seems to be a bit of a problem with the BC Lottery Corporation getting nailed by the federal regulator that guards against money laundering. I understand it was fined $670,000 for violating the reporting rules 1,020 times. Shocking!

Did you by chance get an opportunity to read Gabriolan Economist Erik Andersen’s recent, insightful comments about how your government is moving successfully towards bankrupting BC Hydro? Andersen states that “the available evidence indicates that Hydro is paying IPPs more than double the open market rates prevailing in western North America”. He then asserts: “Despite the 2009 ruling by the BC Utilities Commission that this private power is both unnecessary and not in the public interest, the Campbell government has overruled the public watchdog and forced BC Hydro to proceed with more private power purchase contracts - bringing the total liabilities for public purchases of private power to an estimated $40-50 Billion”. You know Gord, although I’m not an economist, it would seem to me that driving a Crown corporation into insolvency through unexplainable and illogical policies and decisions could only serve to give your government what it needs to demonstrate how making BC Hydro private would be a solid economic idea. This “Liberal” ideology you espouse, this urge to privatise everything, is just plain wrong.

Mr. Andersen calls this approach “sinister.” He’s far nicer than me. I see it as alarming and devious.