Photos: Bill Vander Zalm launches HST initiative petition with rally in Vancouver
On Tuesday evening (April 6), hundreds of people attended a rally to kick off the initiative petition campaign to repeal the harmonized sales tax.
After voters lined up to sign the petition at Kitsilano Secondary School, Fight HST leader and former premier Bill Vander Zalm and Fight HST strategist Bill Tieleman addressed the crowd in the auditorium.
The rally, held in Premier Gordon Campbell's riding, marked the start off the 90-day period in which campaigners will attempt to gather the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters in each constituency.
If the initiative is successful, the B.C. government will have to either introduce a bill to scrap the HST or refer the matter to a provincewide vote.
You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.
Comments
2 Comments
annacain@telus.net
Apr 27, 2010 at 2:05pm
i sent a letter to foster mla for vernon he responded with goverment response on how well we will benefit..they sure fired that out quick,,so i think they are perhaps really understanding how very upset we are with them and their lies..i hope everyone who signed the petition also send a letter telling their mls how they feels lets keep pressure remember they do not want to lose their jobs...so write them let them know your damn mad
C.L. Kaller
Jun 30, 2010 at 9:41am
Each time I am charged a tax increase due to the HST, I send a message to the following group:
To:colin.hansen.mla@leg.bc.ca; cannan.r@parl.gc.ca; premier@gov.bc.ca; carole.james.mla@leg.bc.ca; ben.stewart.mla@leg.bc.ca; norm.letnick.mla@leg.bc.ca; steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca
This is my first such message:
I'm sure you will want to know how the HST has affected my monthly telephone bill with Telus.
How is this for an 88% tax increase:
Currently I use Telus ONLY for the local phone line ($23.61) plus $5.50 for internet (down from the normal $22 during my vacation suspension) which means my current reduced bill is $29.11.
On this amount, before HST came into effect, the GST/PST taxes amounted to $1.86.
With HST , the bill I just received today contained taxes of $3.17 including HST of $2.80
starting on July 1 and GST/PST of $0.37 for 6 days in June.
Thus the tax charges for the month from June 25 to July 24 showed an INCREASE of $1.31 over $1.86
which is an INCREASE of 70% in taxes due to HST.
When the next phone bill comes in for the month starting on July 25, the HST charge will amount to
$3.49 which is an increase in taxes of $1.63 over the $1.86 I paid BEFORE HST.
This is a tax increase of 88% on this one commodity alone.
AND WE ARE BEING TOLD THAT THE HST DOES NOT BRING ABOUT INCREASED TAXES !!
It does explode the government's mythology about the benefits of HST.
C.L. Kaller, Kelowna