Old people who drive the speed limit and stall traffic, take forever chatting up busy cashiers, and shuffle for blocks with their walkers to save a buck, can be a pain for those who are younger and busier. But society is lucky to have these old folks.

Who’s leading the charge against the hated new HST and the ravenous “eco tax” that secretly began chewing away at our pocket books on July 1? Old people, that’s who.

While young folks are gorging on the latest electronic devices, schlepping kids to lessons in everything but good manners, and fighting to keep their jobs in a world bent on cutbacks, old people are minding the store.

The typical young person pays the cashier and crumples up the receipt. His or her grandparents, however, neatly fold it up and head home. The magnifying glasses come out and the hunt is on for human or computer error or a new or increased tax.

Late last year a retired engineer friend spotted a new tax on his receipt when he came home from a local Canadian Tire Store with a clock radio.

He spent the next four hours interrogating Canadian Tire staff who passed him on to the provincial government who referred him to something called Stewardship Ontario, which is made up of industry representatives. The government charges the electronics industry a fee for disposing their products and the process to recover some of this money from consumers would make your head swim.

Reeling from public outrage over the new HST, the provincial government was blindsided by the so-called “eco tax.” This program was also set up to charge manufacturers for disposal costs—in this case hazardous wastes. Great idea but the industry group Stewardship Ontario decided not to inform the public. On July 1 when the program was expanded to cover 1,000 household items, pandemonium broke out in the marketplace. Some stores were charging customers a recovery fee. Some weren’t. Those who were, couldn’t get the amounts right.

Provincial politicians, under siege by an army of old folks clutching their receipts, put up the white flag and suspended the program for 90 days. Well if you think they can get this turkey “re-tooled” that fast, you probably also believe in the tooth fairy. Once they get started there will probably also be demand for reassessing how disposal fees on electronics and tires are set. By then it will be 2011 with a provincial election on the horizon. Get the picture? This program may go the way of the do-do bird.

And this week we received a propaganda piece from Hydro one. They’re pitching their “peaksaver” program, telling consumers it will save us up to 10% on our year-round heating and cooling costs. Balderdash. Phone the 800 number and get a nice young person, who will admit to a nice old person with time to chat, that this is false advertising.

After all, no nice kid would lie to their grandparents.

By: Sally Barnes