A harmonized federal-provincial sales tax came closer to reality this week when the House of Commons passed the motion allowing the federal taxman to help out its implementation in both B.C. and Ontario.

The vote, on what is called a ways and means motion, passed 192 to 32. Only the New Democrats voted against it.

But 15 Liberals didn't show up in the House to have their votes recorded.

What can I do? Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff gestures following a caucus meeting on the HST. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Their absence was one more example of the agonizing going on within the Liberal caucus, where leader Michael Ignatieff had to force the decision on some reluctant colleagues earlier in the week.

Ignatieff came to the correct decision to support the legislation on Tuesday. Ottawa will now provide $4.3 billion to Ontario, and $1.6 billion to B.C., as they marry their provincial sales taxes with the federal GST next summer.

In the process the GST and the PST will become the HST, the Harmonized Sales Tax, which is not bringing much harmony on the political front.

Bad politics

The problem for Ignatieff, though is that he and the Liberals went about coming to that right decision the wrong way.

They dithered, debated and argued publicly among themselves. They even had a "special" meeting of the parliamentary caucus to discuss what they should do. Talk about drawing an arrow at your own indecision. The Liberals put themselves through all this because the HST is good economics but politically unpopular in both provinces, even though the Liberal governments in Ontario and B.C. have asked Ottawa for the new measure.

Both provincial governments are paying a political price for the harmonization. So far, the federal Conservatives, which were more than happy to go along, are not seeing any downside.

And they can thank Ignatieff's Liberals for some of that.

By making their own internal divisions the story around the HST, Ignatieff and the Liberals suddenly became more connected in the minds of many voters with this new tax.

It must have been great fun in the cabinet room watching Liberal MPs differ and threaten while their leader tried to find common ground where none existed.

A competitive edge

The HST is unpopular, because it is collected on the tax base of the GST, and the GST is collected on many services and some goods that are not now taxed provincially.

That means consumers will pay more taxes at the till.

But businesses will pay less. They will now be able to claim tax credits on a much wider base of materials and services under the blended HST, which should make their products cheaper and their exports more competitive.

Value-added taxes such as the GST and HST are always unpopular when they are introduced, although most people seem to get used to them rather quickly.

For governments, though, they are among the most efficient ways to raise money. And with budget surpluses now a memory of sunny days past and massive deficits rolling up massive debt, governments are going to need more money just to maintain programs.

That is what the Liberals of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin found when they came to office, having promised to scrap Brian Mulroney's hated GST.

The Chrétien Liberals needed the money, so they tried to sell the provinces on harmonizing their provincial sales taxes with the GST, just as Mulroney and his finance minister Michael Wilson had tried when the tax was first introduced.

With Chrétien and Martin cajoling and offering cash, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador finally signed on.

Now, over a decade later, Ontario and B.C. will join in. (Quebec has struck its own arrangement for a sort of de factoHST.)

Test of an opposition

All this history underlines why the Liberals should have stepped up to the plate and supported the HST legislation from the get-go. After all, they are the fathers of the harmonized tax.

Moreover, the Liberals know how effective the HST collection system can be when it comes to chopping away at the deficit. Even paying down the debt.

In fact, the current projected deficits over the next two years would be at least $20 billion less if the Harper Conservatives had left the GST at seven per cent, where it was when they came to office, instead of playing politics and chopping it by two percentage points.

But playing politics around the GST and now the HST is both easy and common. In 1990, remember, Liberals in the Senate staged a bizarre filibuster trying to block the original GST from coming to pass.

Now, there will be other votes on this before the HST legislation is finally passed and can go into effect. With 15 absentees from this first vote, the pressure will be on the Liberals to maintain a united front as things move forward.

If they can't do that, then they will show that they are truly an opposition party. Not a party in opposition preparing for the time when it could be in government again.