If you voted to quash the HST, thank you. If you voted to keep the HST, thank you. If you didn’t vote, please turn the page and head straight for the personals — the rest of this column won’t apply to you either.
I’d like to say “well done” to everyone who bothered to participate in this expensive — yet utterly important — experiment in democracy.
Now that we’ve done this, think of where we can go as a society if we continue to work toward the common good.
Here are a few suggestions — maybe not as lofty or romantic as ousting the premier was — but I think that a local approach to achieving Utopia is likely more practical at this point.
1) Volunteer for something … anything. Selflessly give a little of your time to others. Warning: If you’ve never tried it you should know that it’s a lot more difficult than scratching an “X” on a piece of paper and dropping it in the post.
2) Pick up one piece of garbage a day. If all 10,000 or so of us picked up one scrap a day weighing 50 grams we will have handled more than 180,000 kg of trash by hand. Imagine if three million British Columbians did this.
3) Report suspicious activity to the authorities … every time. If the dirtbags know we are all working against them they might think twice about stealing your car, bike, barbecue, boat, chainsaw, etc.
4) Say what you mean. Let’s throw away our ridiculous, pandering, politically correct language filters and start being honest with each other.
5) And now, for my personal pet peeve …
Shake hands like you mean it. If you greet people with a limp handshake, know that the rest of us think less of you for it.
Dean Fulton is a freelance columnist for the Tribune and local musician.