BC election post-mortem

Not only did Gordon Campbell win a third straight majority, the STV referendum was soundly defeated as well. Last time around it should have won, coming very close to the required 60% of the vote, but this time it failed to crack 40%. I don't know what went wrong there. My initial thought was that maybe this time STV supporters didn't bother to vote, but turnout is only down about 8% from the 2005 election. Go figure.

The one bright spot, such as it is, is the fact that there is now a precedent for a government introducing a carbon tax and winning reelection afterwards. I certainly understand the objections many leftists have towards a carbon tax; it is, afterall, an unavoidably regressive form of taxation. My response to this would be to say that instead of balancing it with lowered income taxes, which is the usual approach to this, we should use a carbon tax to replace the sales tax. Then at least you're replacing a regressive tax with another, rather than replacing a progressive tax with a regressive one. Sure, implement cap and trade as well, but I don't think we can afford to go on without every available tool to reduce our emissions.

Critics of carbon taxes also raise the point that if a carbon tax actually works, the government soon loses revenue (since people buy less of items subject to the tax). Now being the pinko commie bastard that I am, I'd say replace declining carbon tax revenue with a hike to the upper income tax brackets, but that's just me.

An interesting commentary on STV

STV, as most of you probably know, stands for single transferable vote, which is the subject of a referendum in BC during their provincial election this coming Tuesday. Here's former BC Liberal cabinet minister Christy Clark, now a radio host, arguing the case for STV. What's interesting is the fact that she admits that her opposition to STV when she was in office was motivated by self-interest. Good for her for coming clean.

Oh, and if you're in BC, please vote yes to STV on Tuesday!