I'm in agreement to axe the HST or at the very least have an open referendum before it is passed into law. But I am curious as to what Vander Zalm is up to. Is he just an outraged, concientious public figure or is he possibly thinking about a political comeback and once again running for Premier?

The HST is a scam...Jack Mintz is a flip flopper....Bye Bye Liberals.

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2010/03/hst-shell-game-continues.html

This is one of those rare scenarios that we MUST win.
Losing the battle is not an option or we will all regret it.
Unfortunately that does not mean we WILL win.
Apathy seems to run rampant in B.C. and it may very well raise it's ugly head again with the HST.
I can just hear the whining later....

Unfortunately, that is the BC way. Complain, do nothing about it and then complain more.

If the canvassers get out and do the job starting April 1st, I believe they won't have any trouble getting the required signatures. But regardless of the petition count I still see the provincial govt trying to pull some sort of BS and saying it is invalid for some reason or other. Then maybe you will see people stop being apathetic.

starting April 1st

Was there an implication in that statement?

April starts on April 1st every year.

The implication? April is a joke? ... :-)

I was at the Prince George meeting last Friday night. I do not believe that Mr VanderZalm is up to anything. He cares about this province and its people. He is 74 years old so he has no interest in future political positions. He did not think this thing would grow like it has. He made a phone call to the Province paper and it ballooned from there. I believe this is his last hurrah and this is his way to be remembered. He is the only politician on this planet actually doing something for the people. I shook his hand and felt admiration and hope. I will be out collecting as many names as I can because I to want to come out of this with pride that I did something.

If you have signed any online petitions, that is great but they are not legal for Elections BC. The polls and petitions were great for information on just how many people were against the HST . Over 80% of British Columbians were against this tax. Please sign your name to the stop the HST initiative that canvassers will be coming to your home with. This is the only signature that counts in regards to Elections BC. Remember that you need to be a registered voter to sign as well.

Amen IMO...amen.

hey wheres mr pg to tell us how good this tax is going to be for us?lol

ditto, AMEN!!! Where do I sign?

Is there a petition to sign in support of the HST?

Let the signature cancellations begin.....

I suppose you could get the 20% of people who own large corporations to sign yours PaysHisOwnWay. You will need to go through the proper channels of course through Elections BC and get approval to get one going. I hope you can find someone to head your cause other than Campbell. Oh but wait, he would not do it for free. *Grin

I asked the lady at the info booth at Pine cCntre if they would allow a table to be put out to get people to sign the petition. She din't know. These petition tables should be everywhere people conjugate, Tims, Spruceland, Walmart, Pine Centre, the Hart, Save On Foods, Parkwood, city hall, Stupidstore. Everywhere. Plus door to door. On the upside, all drug dealers can ignore ANY taxes. Cool, eh?

damyzz, are you 'poking the bear'? Feel free to find any posts where I said that the HST will be good for us. Report back when you don't find anything.

The problem with that Harbinger is that you have to sign the petition for your riding. Your vote will be scrapped if it’s on the wrong list. Make sure you know your riding and you sign the right initiative. Your signature needs to be witnessed as well and that is why the canvassers. It is a legal elections BC document and they have rules as you all know. Your name MUST be on the form that is for your riding. :} Hope I am making sense. lol

The petition legally begins April 6th, not April 1st as indicated by some posts.

Im sure that the canvassers will have riding definitions, so that people will sign the right petition for the right riding. Its the canvassers responsibility to ensure that they sign in the right place.

In Prince George we are looking at Pr George Mackenzie, and Pr George Valemount ridings. There should not be too much trouble getting the 5000 plus signature for these ridings, however they may need a lot of help in other ridings. The sooner we get the signatures here, the sooner we can free up resources to get signatures in other tougher ridings.

In any event even though we have until July 5th to get the signatures hopefully we can get this done by the end of April or early May. Lets not leave it to the last. No need to get into fingernail bitting, if it can be avoided.

I too have signed up to canvas and have made a list of all friends and relatives that want to sign the petition and will get them signed up asap, then on to the door knocking.

The Captains in the ridings I suspect will try and get areas set up so that the public at large (registered voters) can sign, however I havent heard anything in this regard as yet.

I suspect that we should be hearing something soon in regards to our registration with Elections BC. Again this info should come from the riding Captains.

Have a nice day.

Campbell was on Bens radio station this morning saying the HST is a done deal. He seemed so confident? Funny he is here in the north at the same time Mr VanderZalm is doing his visit? Any thoughts?

The HST is a done deal. Even if the longshot petition campaign works, the government will hold a vote in the legislature and it will be over. It's hard for some people to hear that, but it is true.

I do support the anti-HST'ers as part of the democratic process, but this is done.

This week in 1982 was the largest mass protest against the metric system. I seem to recall some pretty good battles over the GST too. I think I see a trend here.

"The HST is a done deal. Even if the longshot petition campaign works, the government will hold a vote in the legislature and it will be over. It's hard for some people to hear that, but it is true." ... so we should all just roll over and resign we can never ever challenge out elected officials? It's because of that attitude that our so-called leaders think they can do whatever they want without worrying about the consequences. If our representatives do thier jobs in the ledgislature and represent thier constituents like they are supposed to, then a vote in the legislature should fail as well.

This is a big 'IF'... If they get 10-15% of the registered voters in each riding to sign the petition, the MLA's can still justify voting for the HST should the vote come up in the legislature. The people who signed the petition would be written off as a vocal minority.

I'm all for the democratic process, I don't think the desired effect will be achieved in this case.

Mr. PG. Firstly 10-15% of the registered voters in BC's 87 ridngs is approx 500,000 registered voters.

You must keep in mind that for every person who signs this petition there would be 15 or 20 who would sign if approached. The intent is to get the required legal number not as many signatures as possible.

It is assumed by Politicians that for every letter that is written to them on a subject by an individual, that 200 other people probably think the same way, but didnt write. If they receive enough letters, then they sit up and take notice.

Only a fool would disregard 450,000 registered voters, and vote to pass this legislation. Dont forget that the polls state that 85% of people in BC are opposed to this tax.

The Liberals have backed themselves into a corner, and that is why Bell is trying damage control in the local papers, and why Campbell is in town, trying to shore up support. I suspect that it is too late.

Its time these running dogs were taken to task for all the inept Governing they have been doing for the last 4 or more years.

And yes I have voted for them in the past, and NO I wont vote for them in the future, and you can be gauranteed neither will a hell of a lot of other supporters they used to have.

"Only a fool would disregard 450,000 registered voters, and vote to pass this legislation. Dont forget that the polls state that 85% of people in BC are opposed to this tax."

People are opposed to any new taxes, myself included -- any poll will tell you that. But that doesn't mean that they are going away any time soon.

Remember all the whining about the GST? They pushed that one through too, even though the majority of the population was against it. See a trend?

Mr. PG. The question is Do YOU remember the GST. This tax was implemented by the Conservatives in 1991, even thought there was considerable opposition to it.

As you may recall in the election of 1993 the Conservative Government lost one of the biggest majority Governments in Canadian history and were reduced to two seats in the House of Commons. It took them 20 years to recover from this huge loss.

The Liberals under Jean Chretian were able to form a Majority Government.

You can rest assured the same fate awaits the Liberals in BC if they persist in implementing the HST. They may get the tax, but they will lose the Goverment.

Have a nice day.