Tuesday, May 11, 2010

400,000 British Columbians sign Fight HST petition to stop Harmonized Sales Tax!

The Fight HST citizens Initiative petition has hit another amazing milestone - over 400,000 signatures obtained in the first five weeks of the campaign!

Details below in this news release from Fight HST

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News Release May 10, 2010

Fight HST petition breaks 400,000 signatures in five weeks. Eight weeks left to go.

56 of 85 ridings hit 10% threshold.

Port Coquitlam – Fight HST lead organizer, Chris Delaney, reported today that the Bill Vander Zalm petition to repeal the HST has hit the 400,000 signature mark as of Monday, May 10th.

Delaney says the petition has achieved the 10% Elections BC threshold in 56 out of a total of 85 ridings across the province. He says that 34 ridings have reached the Fight HST internal threshold of 15% of registered voters or more.

“What is really exciting about this report is the big jump in signatures in both Vancouver and Burnaby this week. We were a little slow getting started in those ridings, but they are catching up quickly, with signature gathering in those regions keeping pace with all other regions now,” said Delaney.

With just over 8 weeks left to go in the 13 week signature gathering campaign, Delaney says the Fight HST petition is poised to hit the 500,000 signature mark, equivalent to over 1/3 of all the voters who voted in the last provincial election.

“This is the largest sample of public opinion ever done in the history of BC. It shows a deep, pervasive and across the board rejection of the government’s policy to implement the HST. It has become much more than just a legal petition to repeal the HST. It has become a referendum on the tax and the government that gave it to us,” Delaney explained.

Fight HST leader, Bill Vander Zalm, says it’s time for the government to act.

“We are calling on Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Hansen to publicly announce they will repeal the HST right now. There can no longer be any purpose to continuing with a tax that nobody wants, and which the government has just admitted it won’t even pay itself when it comes to government purchases. How many more voters do they have to hear from before they will do the right thing and get rid of this tax?” Vander Zalm asked.

“We call on Premier Campbell to come back to BC and get rid of the HST once and for all,” said Vander Zalm.


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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just imagine 10% of these citizens, 40,000 marching north on Granville on a Saturday afternoon!

At that point it would be pretty hard for Pammy Botox and Peg Leg Bill to not report on it. Vaughn and Keith would report on it but downsize the crowd to about 400 and say no one was motivated.

So keep signing them up but don't forget large and angry crowds and BC Liberal business boycotts would also send a message, if not now then before Labour Day.

The GREAT SATAN

Anonymous said...

Where the heck is Gordo? Did he dig himself a hole?

Anonymous said...

Why are we packing up the numbers beyond 15% in some ridings?? Once the 15% is finished, time to move the efforts to nearby ones.

But is this all worth the effort?

The BC Liberals won't get rid of the HST, and neither will the NDP if they become government.

Seems noble at the start, but VanderZalm is going a bit over the top.

Also a recall requires 40% of the registered voters in order to exist. Can't use the canvasser list as new canvassers will have to be signed up. Using the anti-HST sheets to start a recall movement is a bit foolish and might not be allowed, since those sheets are for the anti-HST movement only.

Anonymous said...

The BC Liberal government did a Friday afternoon document dump with a list of "What’s Taxable under the HST and What’s Not?"

The document properties show that it was created shortly after 1pm on Friday May 15, 2010 - over 10 months after announcing the HST.

.PDF / 125 KB / 12 pages

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for comparison:
here is Ontario's list

here is what the BC anti-HST group has on their site

Anonymous said...

what's so bad about the HST?
on the wikipedia page about HST, it states that it's actually revenue-neutral and it's a more efficient tax system... There's studies from the leading economists and stuff... I don't know much, but it looks to me like the anit-HST groups are full of hot air and don't really understand how HST works.

Anonymous said...

What's so bad about the HST?

@ Anonymous 12:22 AM - Everybody has to pay taxes, that is not in dispute.

The BC Liberals deliberately mislead the electorate last year by emphatically and specifically denying that they were considering a HUGE fundamental shift in basic tax policy - they lied.

The HST shifts $2 BILLION per year in taxes from business to consumers.

The HST is supported by those who advocate for trickle-down VOODOO economics.

10 months after announcing the HST and more than a year after secretly starting the HST process: The BC Liberal have now released a "woefully incomplete and misleading" list of goods and services that will be hit by the HST.