Amazing news from the Fight HST campaign that I am proud to be working on today - over 145,000 people have already signed the citizens Initiative petition to stop the HST as of Sunday! Also very happy to report that my NO BC HST Facebook protest group has over 134,000 members - a new high!
Here is the Fight HST news release:
News Release Monday, April 26, 2010
Fight HST signatures quadruple in third week to over 145,000
24% of Electoral Districts have met or exceeded Elections BC’s threshold of 10% of registered voters signatures
Delta - Another 105,000 British Columbians signed the Fight HST petition to repeal the HST last week, bringing the total signatures reported as of Sunday, April 25, 2010 to 145,549 province-wide, says Chris Delaney, Lead Organizer for the Bill Vander Zalm Initiative petition.
“This is a significant increase over our Week 2 report, and shows the momentum continuing to build across the province. Twenty Ridings have met or exceeded the Elections BC threshold of 10% of registered voters signatures already, with seven of those reaching 15% or better. This is a phenomenal achievement in only two weeks of steady campaigning for signatures,” Delaney explained.
Delaney says the big ridings so far are Cariboo-Chilcotin, Cariboo North, Parksville-Qualicum, Peace River North, Shuswap, Skeena, Fort Langley-Aldergrove, Langley, Abbotsford South, and Chilliwack-Hope, with Kamloops North, Nanaimo, Columbia River-Revelstoke, Boundary-Similkameen, Delta North, Saanich North and Victoria Beacon Hill all posting 3,000 signatures or more in each riding as well.
“The good news is we are getting strong numbers everywhere in the province. There is no single region or riding we are canvassing that is not getting strong results. We have now achieved over 48% of the total signatures required for a successful petition in just under 3 weeks. With 9 weeks left to go, we are on track to meet our internal threshold of 15% of registered voters’ signatures in all 85 Electoral Districts in BC,” said Delaney.
Bill Vander Zalm, the leader of the grassroots organization conducting the petition, says the only thing slowing his team down is the time it takes to gather the signatures, “Quite frankly, if most of our volunteers didn’t have to work for a living, we would be done by now. These numbers are even more astounding when you consider the bulk of them were collected only on weekends.”
“We will keep going until we reach the 15% threshold we have set for ourselves in every riding, or until Premier Campbell cries ‘uncle’ and agrees to withdraw the HST, whichever comes first,” said the smiling former premier.
“The idea that the HST is a done deal that cannot be reversed is rapidly collapsing under the reality of a citizen revolt that has spread right across the province, and is now threatening to bring down the government with ‘Recalls’ if they don’t listen to the people,” said Vander Zalm.
Page 11, Section 42 of the CITCA Agreement signed between BC and Ottawa says: “The terms and conditions of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this Part, until the date that is specified by a Party in written notice that is delivered to the other Party setting out the Party’s desire to terminate this Agreement.”
“We thought it was important to reference the ‘Termination Clause’ of the HST Agreement for the premier, since he may want to avail himself of it very soon,” Vander Zalm concluded.
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Fight HST signatures quadruple in third week to over 145,000
24% of Electoral Districts have met or exceeded Elections BC’s threshold of 10% of registered voters signatures
Delta - Another 105,000 British Columbians signed the Fight HST petition to repeal the HST last week, bringing the total signatures reported as of Sunday, April 25, 2010 to 145,549 province-wide, says Chris Delaney, Lead Organizer for the Bill Vander Zalm Initiative petition.
“This is a significant increase over our Week 2 report, and shows the momentum continuing to build across the province. Twenty Ridings have met or exceeded the Elections BC threshold of 10% of registered voters signatures already, with seven of those reaching 15% or better. This is a phenomenal achievement in only two weeks of steady campaigning for signatures,” Delaney explained.
Delaney says the big ridings so far are Cariboo-Chilcotin, Cariboo North, Parksville-Qualicum, Peace River North, Shuswap, Skeena, Fort Langley-Aldergrove, Langley, Abbotsford South, and Chilliwack-Hope, with Kamloops North, Nanaimo, Columbia River-Revelstoke, Boundary-Similkameen, Delta North, Saanich North and Victoria Beacon Hill all posting 3,000 signatures or more in each riding as well.
“The good news is we are getting strong numbers everywhere in the province. There is no single region or riding we are canvassing that is not getting strong results. We have now achieved over 48% of the total signatures required for a successful petition in just under 3 weeks. With 9 weeks left to go, we are on track to meet our internal threshold of 15% of registered voters’ signatures in all 85 Electoral Districts in BC,” said Delaney.
Bill Vander Zalm, the leader of the grassroots organization conducting the petition, says the only thing slowing his team down is the time it takes to gather the signatures, “Quite frankly, if most of our volunteers didn’t have to work for a living, we would be done by now. These numbers are even more astounding when you consider the bulk of them were collected only on weekends.”
“We will keep going until we reach the 15% threshold we have set for ourselves in every riding, or until Premier Campbell cries ‘uncle’ and agrees to withdraw the HST, whichever comes first,” said the smiling former premier.
“The idea that the HST is a done deal that cannot be reversed is rapidly collapsing under the reality of a citizen revolt that has spread right across the province, and is now threatening to bring down the government with ‘Recalls’ if they don’t listen to the people,” said Vander Zalm.
Page 11, Section 42 of the CITCA Agreement signed between BC and Ottawa says: “The terms and conditions of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this Part, until the date that is specified by a Party in written notice that is delivered to the other Party setting out the Party’s desire to terminate this Agreement.”
“We thought it was important to reference the ‘Termination Clause’ of the HST Agreement for the premier, since he may want to avail himself of it very soon,” Vander Zalm concluded.
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12 comments:
Vaughn Palmer has written in his blog today to say " the only petition that really counts in the official campaign is the one you sign in person, with a registered canvasser.
You need to sign the petition for your riding."
And he provides a handy link to www.fighthst.com.
I might be seeing ghosts in a snowstorm, but I'd say even VP has had enough of the BC Liberal arrogance and BS.
Show Vaughn Palmer and the rest of the CanWest Campbell fart-catchers what really can be done . . . organize an ANTI-GST March!
Fifty-thousand-citizens marching north on Granville (in time for the News Hour) to the Campbell Executive Bunker and the Ober Kommando der Can/West tower.
The only thing these plutocrats understand is the fist and in this case the fist will beat the pen.
The GREAT SATAN
I'm with devil on this one- that and a general strike. It's way past time to circumvent the Campbell arrogance.
Yeah but VP also said on BCTV at noon that the bill will likely pass by midnight friday and then the stop hst movement is hooped because even if we get enough signatures it is not mandatory on the government to do anything about something that is signed sealed and delivered. He suggested it would be better to spend that energy recalling mla's. but what do i know. ps: interesting your word verification has the word liar as part of the word to verify. ha! liartypt
You know, pip, VP, the old and feeble, neglected to say that it could also be most appropriate to go through the motions with the HST, first. Then, after the whole province has shown itself to be really angry, the MLA recall would prove to the voters that the recalling of MLAs has widespead approval. The province, as a whole, would be behind the recall. The winners of the recalled seats and the other MLAs would realize that we have finally reached a tipping point.
Yeah, but the neat thing here is all those names, addresses, phone numbers all tabulated and ready for RECALL starting off with seven BC Liberal MLAs that are being given the chance to swing their votes against the implementation of the HST, or should I say the PST.
CKNW has a poll about signing the petition - someone's freep'd it so the majority is saying no to signing it. Wonder what the PABlum crew was doing this afternoon.
I just checked out the CKNW poll, the question is...Will you sign the HST poll, the results are...
Over 72% saying no to signing on their poll, LOL LOL LOL...When real pollsters have the number at 80% that say they will sign the petition...
For a skocking story about what happened with Keith Baldrey on the noon news today on Global news...
Just click my name
What do you expect from the running dogs at CanWest and BCTV, do you actually expect them to report any truth . . . let alone news?!
With universe class fart-catchers the likes of the faded rock band chasers Palmer, Bauldry, and the dynamic TV plutocrat team of BILL BAD and PAMMY BOTOX being the word and voice of BC should you be surprised?!
Sixty-nine years ago this crowd would have been declaring how many times the Germans had captured and re-captured Stalingrad, and also won the Battle of Britain a year before.
And in 1945, "Mr. Bad" would have his fat butt in a trench outside the Berlin bunker reporting how they were winning there too.
So don't sweat it, who cares any more what Pammy Botox has to say . . . only her dermitologist knows how really old she is (hey, didn't she report on the Titantic sinking back in April 1912?)!
The GREAT SATAN
A quick one / two punch from the G&M and smashing finish from VP
1st up - Gary Mason writes: "If there is a word that best describes what fuels Mr. Campbell's ambition it would be hubris. He doesn't think anyone could do the job better." [...] "So he's not worried about a palace coup."
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Next up we have Justine Hunter with a wicked follow through from former B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor: "I think the bigger issue is that [Premier Gordon Campbell] promised that they would not – they would not – do the harmonization of the sales tax. And then right after the election, decided to do it." [...] “There’s a feeling of having been deceived by the government that people elected”
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Finally, there is Vaughn Palmer with the coup de gras gracing his column today: "I expect she'd (Carole Taylor) say that all she did was answer the questions that were put to her. But having watched her in action, I can say she also knows how to duck questions. In this case she answered, and did so in a way that was unsparing of the premier and his government."
Christie Clark or Carole Taylor may re-enter politics thinking they have distanced themselves enough from Campbell. Not in my books. They did the dirty work when it was required of them as cabinet ministers.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bcs-carole-taylor-joins-outcry-against-hst/article1547792/
http://www.christyclark.ca/2009/08/13/cbc-christy-clark-calls-campbell-sneaky-on-hst/
The HST passage is pretty much a given. So, let's advance to the next government in line.
What does the NDP do with the HST?
They should get rid of it when they have the opportunity to do so,
or at least reduce it to 1%.
So far the NDP has said nothing of doing one or the other.
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