Converter bolts...

13% sales tax? What a government rip-off! Storm the king's imperial castle and demand a rollback to something fair...

a wrote in news:qvPrm.44073$Db2.32928 @edtnps83:

Are these the spring bolts? If so, they tend to get really thin once the rust eats away at them for long enough. This is possible in a car that's had 7 eastern-Canadian winters under its belt. If the bolts break, the exhaust aft of the cat can fall down get damaged.

I'd ask the Service Advisor to show you what they look like.

I believe so - but I'll do them myself for much less $$.

a

Well, we *do* get free healthcare...

;0)

a

a wrote in news:TxUrm.45165$PH1.29852@edtnps82:

Then don't buy cheapo aftermarket ones.

I think you'll find it's the parts that are the bulk of the price you were quoted.

a wrote in news:ryUrm.45167$PH1.10777@edtnps82:

That "free" health care is awfully expensive.

Taxes that go towards health care are a BIG reason Canada's standard of living is 75% that of the US.

"Red Garnett" wrote in news:h8onhe$5c6$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:

You bet.

But it's not technically entirely a "sales tax". The OP lives in the Canadian province of Ontario. 8% of that 13% is a direct sales tax by the province (state). The other 5% is a federal goods and services tax.

That may happen sooner rather than later. The current tyrant...Premier, sorry...is not too popular just now, and there's an election coming soon. (A Canadian Premier is equivalent to a US Governor, but with **WAY** more power.)

Point of order! Nova Scotia. ;0)

The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is administered by the federal government and applies to all goods and services with some exceptions. It combines the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5 per cent and Nova Scotia's "value-added" tax of 8 per cent.

Quotes around "value-added" are mine.

a

Well then so are taxes that go toward the debt, and education - they are significant expenditures for government.

Who uses "standard of living" anymore?? Not even Economists. Standard of living is just GDP per capita which is not an accurate measure because it does not differentiate between consumer and capital goods; it does not take income distribution into account; it does not take account of differences in the economic goods and services that are not measured in GDP at all; it is also crippled by the vagaries of translating income measures into a common currency for comparison.

GDP - the sum total of goods and services sold in a country. Hmmmm, you think the *massive* amounts of money spent on defence in the US (on a per capita basis) might skew the USs GDP up a tad? The US accounts for more than 50% of global military spending, but don't have quite 50% of the population of the planet, so this tends to skew standard of living.

That healthcare system is a big part of why Canada consistently ranks in the top few countries to live in (in non-Canadian studies):

Are we perfect? Far from it. But we're pretty damn good.

a

a wrote in news:xyWrm.45183$PH1.44404@edtnps82:

I sit corrected.

Ontario is scheduled to have an HST as of next April or something like that. The new HST means all sorts of stuff (services, specifically) that's currently exempt from the sales tax will be roped into the new HST.

Tyrant McGuinty will probably lose his job over it too. I hope.

So NS has a provincial value-added tax and not a sales tax? Then you have a /double/ value-added tax! The federal GST is officially also a value-added tax.

Time for a Tea Party, I say.

I sure hope so too. I still can't believe that the Ontario electorate was so unbelievably stupid to re-elect him in 2007 after all the crap he pulled during his first term.

The Hair-ball Skeleton Tax (AKA Harmonized Sales Tax, HST) is scheduled to be puked on Ontarians July 1/2010 (if it's legislated).

8% more on gasoline, heat, electricity, labour, etc.... this is what the people of the Province Of Ontario get when Premier Dalton Mcguinty starts barfing-up all those kittens he ate. Empty pockets and furry bones all over the place.

When I'm behind the wheel of my Honda, I'm thinking my standard of living is pretty damn good.

The rest is "waste, fraud and abuse", anyway...