300,000 British Columbians can't be wrong on the HST!
Unbelievable! The Fight HST citizens Initiative petition launched on April 6 has now gained over 300,000 BC voter signatures - that's 10% of all registered voters!
And there are still two months left to gather signatures until the Initiative deadline of July 5.
But - it's important to know that while the Initiative rules require a minimum of 10% of all BC voters to sign the petition - it also requires each of BC's 85 ridings to meet the 10% rule - not 10% overall.
That means Fight HST canvassers still have a lot of signatures to obtain, because some ridings are far from their targets while others have already achieved them with a healthy margin for error.
The goal of Fight HST is to get 15% of voters in every riding to ensure that even if some signatures are disqualified - where voters may sign in the wrong riding, sign twice or not be on the voters list, for example - the Initiative will still have enough signatures to succeed.
So - the petition drive is far from over - and the more people who sign, the more difficult it will be for the BC Liberal and federal Conservative government to ignore the will of the people.
To find signing locations in your area or to volunteer - and even with over 5,600 canvassers more help is welcome! - go to the Fight HST website.
Here is a news release from Fight HST on this milestone achievement.
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News Release
Fight HST citizens Initiative petition breaks 300,000 signatures, representing 10% of total registered voters
BC Government attempts to intimidate voters backfires as signatures continue to pour in
Delta – The Fight HST citizens Initiative petition to repeal the HST broke the 300,000 signatures mark as of Monday May 3, up an astonishing 155,000 signatures from last week’s total, says Fight HST Lead Organizer, Chris Delaney.
The Initiative, led by former BC Premier Bill Vander Zalm, has now been signed by approximately 10% of the registered voters across BC, Delaney said, with two months left before the July 5 deadline.
But there is still a long way to go, Delaney says, because the 10% total for the Initiative to succeed must be reached in every one of the 85 electoral districts in BC.
Delaney said the sheer size of the number of signatures this early in the petition drive shows that the BC Liberal government’s attempt to discourage and intimidate voters from signing has failed completely.
“If anything, the attacks last week by BC Finance Minister Colin Hansen have backfired, and more people than ever want to sign the petition and send the government a message that they won’t be bullied or threatened into accepting the Hated Sales Tax,” said Delaney.
Former BC premier, Bill Vander Zalm, who is leading the Fight HST forces, said he is encouraged by the number of young people now signing the petition.
“In Vancouver this weekend, we signed up another 2,000 people in one day, and the overwhelming majority were students and young people between the ages of 18-30. That is exciting,” said Vander Zalm.
Delaney says there are now 44 ridings that have reached the Elections BC 10% signature threshold, with 17 of those hitting the internal threshold of 15% set by the Fight HST group.
“Over half of BC’s 85 ridings have already reached the Elections BC target in just under four weeks of canvassing. With eight weeks to go, we are ahead of schedule for making our 15% in all 85 ridings,” Delaney explained.
Delaney says the strongest ridings signing up so far are BC Liberal strongholds like Shuswap, Kelowna, Peace River, Boundary Similkameen, and the Cariboo ridings.
“But Skeena is now leading the pack with 30% of registered voters signing the petition. This is crossing all traditional political divides and demographics,” said Delaney.
Delaney says the petitioners still have a lot of work to do in Vancouver and Burnaby where organizers started late.
“We had the same issues in Coquitlam and Maple Ridge as well. But both of those regions are up and running now and catching up quickly. We expect the same will happen in the rest of the province over the coming weeks.”
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6 comments:
Hansen is doing the rounds on radio shows, trying to sell the HST. I listened to a program, for a few minutes today hosted by Chrisy Clarke. She got a lot of complaints. One guy asked her if she really believed Gordo and Co. had not had any thoughts about the HST prior to the election. She said" I believe him". Since I was about to eat something I decided I'd heard enough from that woman so went back to the CBC .She sure is a stooge for Gordo.
300,000 and counting simply cannot be ignored
That's 10% univeral across the entire province. Is a nice figure to throw around, but not practical.
Need 10% of the registered voters in each and every riding on paper.
Bill, get out there and hit the streets. You're spending too much time on publicity and not enough time on practial things. We know communication is youre forte but diversify bud and get out signing up people. The excercise will do you good. Getting a bit of a hint of a Molson Mound there.
and get VanderZalm out with you. He could use the excercise.
Campbell, Hansen nor the BC Liberal Party, have any common sense. The budget and the HST, is far too big a burden. The recession is over, so what is with all of these, unfair taxes? There are still not enough jobs. Most of the jobs, that do come up are part time. Campbell and Hansen, just don't get it. There are thousands of citizens, who have less to live on, than a politician or CEO, spend on their booze bill.
by the way tielemen, even though you are reporting your facebook of 130K is the largest in BC, it's wrong. The vancouver canucks has over 155,000. "http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=bc&o=65&sid=863780421.3265866552..1&s=20#!/Canucks?ref=ts"
thanks for reporting a false fact.
NO BC HST is BC's largest protest group. It was larger than the Vancouver Canucks fan page for quite a while but the fine work done leading into the playoffs boosted Roberto and the lads past my humble page - and good on them.
There is all this talk about fighting the HST but how does one *support* it???
I think the idea is good - stop taxing the processes from the manufacturing point and allow the tax to be tax input credits so that businesses can produce goods tax-free. For consumer it's tax neutral except and we might even see price decreases as products are cheaper to produce.
The PST and the administration of that tax is pure silly.
You can't avoid taxes people but we can try to stop getting taxed on taxes etc.
Good luck stopping the HST - the MACHINE is too big.
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