Would You Rather Be Recalled or Eat Rotten Fish?

A little time-waster game I sometimes play with my children is “Would You Rather?” The aim is to stump the person by coming up with two choices, both of which are unacceptable to that person to select.

• “Would you rather get stranded on a deserted island or lost in a mountain range?”
• “Would you rather have to eat a giant bowl of slimy mushrooms or a huge plate of rotten fish?”

For the HST saga in British Columbia, this game is also being played.

“Would you rather resign because you no longer support the HST or would you rather be recalled?”

Either way, as a member of the legislative assembly and government caucus, you might be looking for work soon. I can only imagine then, that these are both unacceptable alternatives for BC Liberal representatives.

They’re stumped!

It’s decent political strategy for the Anti-HST crowd to put it this way. The matter is simplified for our consumption quite tidily.  They must keep people excited in case we try to move onto the next great issue. They must mobilize people for any recall efforts and/or referendum campaign.

But the government members shouldn’t have to be stumped!

It’s the logical fallacy of a false dilemma (AKA false dichotomy) in which the range of options are narrowed when more may exist. In this case, of course, the third option is the referendum.

• “Would you rather resign because you no longer support the HST or would you rather be recalled or would you rather take your chances come September 2011 with the referendum?”

This would make the whole HST issue more precise, reasoned and comprehensive. Mind you, it would be against the rules for the “Would You Rather” game.

See also: What’s Missing from the BC HST Debate (blog post); HST Referendum is BC Politics As Usual (blog post); Survivor MLA Trivializes BC Politics (blog post); Opinion 250 interview with this blog author