TORONTO - Ontario will benefit from rejection of the HST in British Columbia because the move to scrap the tax in the west makes Ontario a better place to invest, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said Friday.

"They will not have as competitive a tax system as us now, and they will now have a real dilemma about the $1.6 billion they have to return to Ottawa," said Duncan.

"B.C. has taken a giant step backwards."

Ontario moved to the HST at the same time as B.C., but the reaction in Ontario was much less visceral.

The governing Liberals attribute the more muted opposition to a rebate package that accompanied the change.

Unlike in B.C., Ontario also didn't introduce the HST after within months of an election campaign that promised not to raise taxes.

But the Ontario Liberals did bring the tax changes during a mandate won after promising not to repeat their 2003 ways, when Premier Dalton McGuinty imposed a "health premium" after promising no tax hikes.

Ontario is heading into its own election campaign in just over a week, however, and while the province wasn't required to hold a referendum, the Oct. 6 vote will be the first opportunity people get to express their feelings about the tax change.

The Progressive Conservatives have wasted no time in dubbing Premier Dalton McGuinty "the taxman" over the HST, and are urging voters to turn the election into their own referendum.

"I just find wherever I go, people want relief," said PC Leader Tim Hudak.

"They're saying that they're getting nickeled and dimed to death, and that hurts businesses, especially small business, when people have fewer dollars in their pockets."

Both the Tories and the New Democrats have promised to take the HST off hydro and home heating bills, with the NDP also promising to phase the provincial portion of the HST off gasoline.

"Liberals in BC and Ontario have proven that they're not listening to families struggling to pay the bills," said Paul Ferreira, NDP candidate for York South-Weston.

"BC voters made it loud and clear the HST is a bad deal. Voters in Ontario will have that opportunity in the upcoming election."

Duncan has said he's only heard about the HST from a couple of voters while he's been out knocking on doors, and he isn't worried about its impact on the upcoming election.

Neither the Tories nor the NDP, he pointed out, are planning to scrap it.

"They rail against it and keep it," Duncan said. "I don't think we want a leader who says one thing about a tax and then does another."

The B.C. tax was killed with 54.73 per cent of voters turning it down and forcing the government to revert to a provincial sales tax.