Cut the GST to 5% ?

It seems like every time we have a Federal election here in Canada one party always seems to go forth and make some promise (which has always ended up being an empty one) about the GST. For those of you not from Canada the GST is the Goods & Services Tax and is a 7% levy put on most goods that we buy aside from food. It is also a much hated tax that has been despised and challenged ever since it was brought in in 1990 by the ruling Conservative party at the time as a method to generate extra tax dollars to counteract what was at the time a poor Canadian economy and a debt ridden country.

Back in 1992 when the Liberal party first came into power, they made a very empty campaign promise ot scrap the GST entirely, which they soon realized was somewhat impossible since the revenue that it brings in helps shore up the books and benefits a lot of other areas that the Federal government controls like Health Care and EI. Every year since then a particular political party has decided that its worth trying to get a few extra votes by making some sort of promise to either scrap it or reduce the tax rate on the GST.

This years luckily winner of "Playing the GST Card" is the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper. Oddly enough no one is Canada is holding their breathe that Stephen Harper would actually live up to this campaign promise if he was voted into power... go figure?