LETTER

Education, entertainment and magic 

 

As much as I like to read the Bulletin d’Aylmer and the Pontiac Journal, I also watch and listen to the TV news and the interpretation of it. It is educational on a different level, if you open your mind to it. Over the years I noticed a shift from the news to some form of entertainment in informing us about the world around us. And this is usually supported by opinions of the “specialists, analysts, and celebrities of whatever”, and what we get is good entertainment, pure magic.

 

I was introduced to magic by my son's friend who had the ambition to become a magician. He gave me a book, something like Magic 101. In the first lesson I learned that good magic begins with a grand gesture with one hand, to distract the audience, and then with a sleek movement of the other hand, out of view, you assure the success of the trick performed. This happens in seconds, so practice it to perfection. What happens if a trick is performed in a timely fashion and for a large audience, let's say us, the public?

 

The Trick was announced with fanfare, and it lowered the GST from 7% to 5%, all to great applause. It was performed well; on a scale 1 to 10 we gave it 10 (via election ). However the realist in me, a curious mathematician and an artist who introduced on the world stage the Multiple/Multilateral sculpture as an educational tool and not as a trick, I could not resist analyzing this trick for myself. I like facts.

 

Here, we will do it together as in a Multiple/ Multilateral sculpture where one image supports another and another... We will establish the Standard unit of 100 as a unit of measure, unaffected by inflation nor anything else.

We start as it was before the Trick, 100 X GST 7%(+) X QST 7.5%(+) = 115.03

 

After lowering the GST to 5%, the other hand performed the magic with shifts and "hair cuts" in the Transfer payments to provinces like Quebec, which triggered the gradual rise of the QST from 7.5% to the present 9,975%. And this is where we stand now 100 X GST 5%(+) X QST 9.975% (+) = 115.47.  We had 115.03 < 115.47 is what we now have. Pure magic!

 

A few days ago I heard some “analysts and economists” saying that lowering the GST was a big mistake, and that it should return back to 7%, in which case 100 X GST 7%(+) X QST 9.975%(+) = 117.67. Let's compare all the figures where 115.03 < 115.47 < 117.67.  (Note: the sign < means it is smaller than...)

 

Rasto Hlavina 

Pontiac (Luskville)