Fight HST Closing P.G. Office

Saturday, May 29, 2010 05:59 AM

Prince George, B.C.- With the goal of collecting signatures from 15% of voters in the three Prince George are ridings achieved, the Fight HST office will be winding down it's operations in Prince George.

The office on Third Avenue will be closed because the number of people visiting the office to sign the petition has dwindled. That doesn't mean the canvassing for signatures will stop, people are still planning to go door to door to collect signatures as there are still lots of people who want to sign the petition.

The closure of the office today will follow a rally at 11:00 a.m. at the 1705 Third Avenue site. Those who haven't already signed the petition will be able to sign up at that time.

Province wide, the initiative has collected at least 10% of the eligible voters in every riding. That is the legal requirement for a successful initiative, but the campaign organizers have pushed for 15% in order to offset any signatures ruled invalid.

Earlier this week, the person at the head of the campaign, former Premier Bill Vanderzalm said the whole initiative snowballed much faster than even he thought it would, "It sort of took on a life of it's own".

The initiative has until July 5th to submit it's petition.

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Posted on Saturday, May 29, 2010 05:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: SummerSoul on May 29 2010 6:26 AM

Now comes the hard part...getting our "representatives" in Victoria to respond to the will of the electorate.

Posted by: acrider54 on May 29 2010 7:21 AM

Nice thought but it will never happen, they are too arogant they will go on staus quo and tell us where to go.

Posted by: socredible on May 29 2010 8:13 AM

Keep collecting those signatures, canvassers.

Even if we've signifigantly surpassed the number needed the more names we add between now and July 5th the more pressure is exerted on those whose job is "...to yield to pressure".

Remember that we stopped the 'sale' of the Coquihalla Highway by exerting similar pressure, and if we hadn't we'd have been paying the now removed tolls on 'our' highway to a private operator for the next sixty years.

We don't have any BC Liberals in the Legislature now who had the guts of Claude Richmond, who, even though he was supposed to be neutral as Speaker of the House at that time, remembered his "representative" role as MLA came first and reminded Campbell that his constituents didn't want that road 'sold'.

The ones there now are all as spineless as jellyfish, scared to death of falling out of favour with the guy at the top.

But there's one thing they're even more scared of than that. And that's an Electorate that's increasingly determined not to kow-tow to HIS dictates. Lets keep showing them that determination, folks, it's the only way things CAN be changed.

Posted by: verballabel on May 29 2010 9:19 AM

Get as many signatures as possible. I'd like to see 30%. But I guess we'll see.

Posted by: Born in BC on May 29 2010 11:33 AM

"Remember that we stopped the 'sale' of the Coquihalla Highway by exerting similar pressure, and if we hadn't we'd have been paying the now removed tolls on 'our' highway to a private operator for the next sixty years."

Right. Now the entire population of BC pays for a highway that benefits users. Taxation vs user fees. So now someone in Prince George who never uses the highway bears the same cost as someone who uses it every weekend from Vancouver or Kamloops (assuming equal taxable earnings). Politicians arent the only ones who spin things the way they need to to achieve their objectives.

The bottom line is that is always two ways to look at something. There are always benefits to BOTH options. There are always costs to BOTH options. HST is no different. Its a complicated issue. Just because those against it are louder does not make them right.

Posted by: Mercenary on May 29 2010 12:42 PM

Thanks for the good work folks :)

Posted by: socredible on May 29 2010 12:42 PM

Born in BC, former Social Credit Premier Bill Bennett, in a public tv interview when the NDP was still in office in the late-90's, stated that the cost of the Coquihalla Highway had been paid off from the tolls years before.

That they'd been left on by the NDP as a 'cash cow' to the government, and should've been removed when they'd accomplished their originally intended purpose.

There is nothing wrong with 'user fees' of that nature where SOME taxpayers would benefit way more than others through the use of such an asset as that road. But when the road, or bridge, or whatever is paid for, remove the tolls.

Posted by: acrider54 on May 29 2010 5:13 PM

Yes thanks for the good work