The Fight HST’s Campaign’s lead organizer, Chris Delaney, says the petition to repeal the HST has broken the group’s internal threshold of 15% in all 85 ridings across BC this past weekend.
Delaney says breaking the internal threshold of 15% in all ridings is even more significant than the minimum threshold of 10% set by Elections BC, because it ensures the margin of victory. Here in Columbia River-Revelstoke, 8,634 people have signed the petition. That’s more than 30 per cent of all registered voters in the riding.
“This means that one of every three signatures would have to be discarded in any one of our ridings for the petition to fail. Our canvassers have been extremely diligent, and with a solid buffer of 35% or more signatures than what is required in each of our ridings, the petition is certain to succeed,” Delaney said.
He pointed out that the overall number of signatures has reached 653,240, meaning that more than 40% of voters who voted in the last election have signed the petition.
“These are amazing numbers, and prove unequivocally that British Columbians of every persuasion reject the HST,” he said.
In the wake of the resignation of former Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom, Fight HST Leader, Bill Vander Zalm, reiterated his call for Premier Gordon Campbell to kill the HST now.
“It is time for Premier Campbell to wake up and smell the coffee and get rid of this tax,” Vander Zalm said. “There is nothing more to wait for. “Stop fighting your own people and cancel the HST now.
“Cancelling the HST now would not only save British Columbia consumers and businesses from the HST, but it might even save his government.”
Vander Zalm says the HST is set to take effect on July 1.
“Cancelling it prior to that date would save everyone from having to change their lives to accommodate the tax, only to have to change it all around again when the tax is repealed in the fall,” Vander Zalm said. “It will be a waste of time and money for everyone to have this go forward, and then later cancel it. The time is now.”
The petition will only continue to gain strength before its deadline of July 9.
