I have to admit, a few months ago when former premier Bill Vander Zalm and former B.C. Unity Party leader Chris Delaney launched their anti-harmonized sales tax (HST) campaign, I thought they were nuts. There was no way they could possible gather signatures from 10 per cent of voters in all 85 ridings across the province - a signature total that would force the provincial government to take a strong second look at the HST and possibly call for a province-wide referendum.
Boy, was I ever wrong.
On Monday, Vander Zalm and Delaney announced that signatures from 15 per cent of people in all the ridings have been received, a benchmark that puts the campaign well above the needed target and increases the likelihood that it will pass all the legal requirements set forth by Elections BC.
Once the petition is submitted, Elections BC will validate all signatures to be certain they belong to the right people living in the proper ridings. Once that is done, then the petition will be sent off to a government committee, and that is where the real fun begins.
While the anti-HST campaign continues to gain momentum, Premier Gordon Campbell and his Liberals are losing more and more steam.
A real blow to the HST movement came last Friday when MLA Blair Lekstrom, the minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, resigned from the Liberal caucus. Lekstrom plans to continue to serve as MLA for Peace River South, but he'll be sitting as an Independent once the legislature resumes in Victoria after its summer break.
Lekstrom is the first MLA to flee a clearly-sinking Liberal ship, and I bet there will be more in the days to come. I honestly don't believe that Lekstrom is the only Liberal MLA who is feeling the heat from constituents.
Lekstrom said it was clear to him that his constituents were opposed to the HST and were unhappy with the way government moved forward with the policy. He said he could no longer support the government's decision.
I applaud Lekstrom for his stance. While he's probably done a lot of damage internally to the Liberal party, and we'll find out how much damage come the next election, MLAs are elected to represent all their constituents. And just because he belongs to the party pushing through this controversial tax doesn't mean he has to support it. Clearly he doesn't, so he did what he had to do and resigned.
The Liberals believe they are making the right decision to help the province with HST. Maybe they are, and maybe they aren't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. But it's the way they went about introducing the HST that has me and 15 per cent of the voters in every riding in this province upset. Voters in B.C. feel betrayed and let down by the Liberals. They feel they were misled and lied to during the last election, and I share in those feelings. There is a strong need to re-evaluate this decision, and thanks to the strong anti-HST petition, government will have to engage British Columbians in a series of discussions about the future of this province. If they don't, then Vander Zalm and his movement could switch to recall mode and the government could come crashing down.
The premier is standing firm in his government's decision, but if he's not careful, he won't have much ground left to stand on.
