The hated HST is dead. Soon its equally unloved cousin, the PST, will be dug up and pressed back into service.
Opposition parties and their allies are declaring victory, but did anyone really come out ahead?
The dollars spent by businesses and government to transition to - and now from - the different systems is money down the drain.
Add to that the tax dollars thrown away on marketing the HST and of course the $1.6 billion we have to mail back to Ottawa.
It is a remarkable victory for participatory democracy. Never before have Canadians managed to overturn government tax policy through petition and referendum, but while that may warm the hearts of some, it's worth looking south to perpetually penniless California to see where taxation by referendum ultimately leads. Although, admittedly, we are a long way from that given how hard it is to organize a referendum here.
Still, the entire HST saga has been marked by decisions made in panic or in anger - from Gordon Campbell's lunging for the federal billions without consultation or even warning, to him later trying to right the ship by calling a binding plebiscite which required only 50 per cent plus one - none of which is in the existing legislation.
Voters also acted with their hearts, with the results splitting along obvious party lines. This should not have been a re-run of the 2009 election. Tax policy is complex, which makes the debate vulnerable to abuse from both eggheads and rabble-rousers. Friday was a win for the populists.
We will all be sifting through the wreckage of the HST, likely for many years. We are all the poorer for it.
