Petition target met in all but two B.C. ridings, anti-HST group says
Petitioners who have been collecting signatures across B.C. in an effort to repeal the harmonized sales tax say they have almost reached their goal.
The petitioners' objective is to gather names from at least 10 percent of the registered voters in each of the province’s 85 electoral districts, a threshold set under the Recall and Initiative Act, by the July 5 deadline.
According to numbers released today (May 25), that goal has already been met in all but two ridings: Vancouver-Langara and Richmond East.
The anti-HST campaigners, led by former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm, say they expect to collect the remaining signatures next weekend, and meet their own goal of gathering signatures from 15 percent of registered voters in each riding in the coming weeks.
So far, they say they have names from 15 percent of voters in 57 of the 85 ridings.
The latest results from the citizen-initiative petition also show the 10-percent mark has been met in the ridings of Premier Gordon Campbell (Vancouver-Point Grey), and Finance Minister Colin Hansen (Vancouver-Quilchena).
Elections B.C. still needs to verify the signatures.
Slated to go into full effect on July 1, the 12-percent HST combines the B.C. provincial sales tax and federal GST.
Comments
11 Comments
cheryl
May 25, 2010 at 11:25am
Whooo hooooo! Way to go team!
Dave C.
May 25, 2010 at 12:38pm
Way to go, keep up the good work!!!!
Jeffwearsbirks
May 25, 2010 at 12:47pm
While I am all for not implementing the HST, and think it was a horrible breech of trust to impose it after promising not too, I am torn. Recall legislation is completely asinine in principle. Often important decisions are somewhat unpopular - civil rights legislation in the south wasn't popular, so could have been recalled; that's not right. Look at same-sex marriage in California right now, peoples rights have been revoked because they were not popular on the whole. Sometimes the right decision is the hard one.
YES!
May 25, 2010 at 1:42pm
Keep keeing people to sign it thou, we need to get over 10% because some of the people who signed likely are not registered voters.
Ann B
May 25, 2010 at 6:16pm
Guy in birks,
nice of U to compare SSM to such a dishonest travesty.
I could think of other just-as-offensive comparisons involving impopular, but great decisions affecting straights, but life's too short.
I'm gonna get gay-married, and sign the damn petition if I want to, regardless of your condescending and whishy-washy swish.
Grumpy Auld Scot
May 26, 2010 at 6:40am
This should have been an election issue. The denial and reversal over the tax is the issue here. If democracy is to work then the voters have to be given the facts and politicians must be held responsible. This petition is a healthy part of responsible government and I hope it succeeds in making the point to our BC liberals.
Don't lie to me.
Morty
May 26, 2010 at 11:12pm
When do I get to sign a petition stating my support for the HST? Or do I have to wait for an province-wide vote that we can't afford? I despise the Liberals as much as anyone (though I probably trust Vander Zalm even less than Gordo), but on this they've made the right call—having parallel sales taxes collected by parallel bureaucracies with parallel paperwork is nothing but a giant waste of our tax dollars. The PST and GST should have been harmonized in every province years ago.
glen p robbins
May 28, 2010 at 5:51pm
I have to say -- at this moment in time -- (end of may 2010) Bill Vander Zalm is the most popular politician in the province. I would like to see Bill, President of a new provincial party -- The BC Dogwood Alliance--Bill and his wife abhor the more gutteral side of BC politics - however nearly everyone agrees -- Bill Vander Zalm is the man to lead -- in some capacity-it's for the good of the people.
Also, to be honest this fifth or sixth version of Vander Zalm -- is the best one.
The BC Dogwood Alliance????
May 29, 2010 at 10:25pm
"I have to say -- at this moment in time -- (end of may 2010) Bill Vander Zalm is the most popular politician in the province."
Bill to lead the Conservatives!
RealityCheck
Jun 1, 2010 at 7:59pm
I just made a camping reservation the invoice shows you the GST paid and also the upcoming HST that you will be paying. Interesting:
10 CampDeposit-7 @ $30.00 HSTIncl $300.00
10 DepElecSrv @ $8.00 HSTIncl $80.00
6 ReservationFee @ $6.00 GST $36.00
Tax Amounts
Total HST $40.71
Total GST $1.80
HST Inclusive -$40.71
Totals
Total Charges: $417.80 CAD
From $1.80 to $40.17 isn't that awesome I love paying more for things especially when there's no or little improvement in the service, I think we should increase income tax by at least %20 and gas should be $30/L