It's an encouraging demonstration of people's ability to get things done.

Well done, everybody!

What's the next big project? Voter reform?

Meantime, the most important trial in BC history continues in BC Supreme Court (800 Smyth St., Vancouver) at 9:00 AM on Monday, May 31 ... at issue is how a big railway (BC Rail) could slide out of public hands and into private pockets. Details here:

http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/

Congratualtions and a big thank-you to all concerned!
Ya gotta love it when democracy works!
Hopefully,a new area in B.C. politics, where people get out and vote, and MLA's and government actually listen to those who elected them!

Yes, congratulations for a job well done. May we see true democracy prevail in dealing with this most undesirable situation. Now is the time for a recall campaign for Gordon Campbell and others who have lied to us.

This was a feat to be sure, but given the fact that 80% of the people in the riding didn't sign, does that mean that almost 8 out of 10 people either support the tax (not likely), are indifferent either way (probably a good chunk) or don't figure it will impact them enough to make a point of formally being against it (probably a good chunk again)?

I can see proclaiming that democracy has won as a means to keep the pep rally going, but when only 20% of the population come out to oppose something, I'm left with the conclusion that the issue isn't THAT galvanizing to the general population. And for the record, I'm against the HST.

NMG. I have been around for a long time and I can tell you that this issue was about as galvanizing as it an get.

One has to keep in mind this whole process was handled by volunteers who dedicated their own time for a period of approx 6 weeks, with no money to cover expenses, etc; except what came out of their own pockets. Most of these people worked like dogs to get the results that they got.

The fact that they were able to get approx 7000 signatures in the ridings of PG Valemount, and PG MacKenzie and apparently 3400 or more in Nechako Lakes is astounding given all the constraints they faced. To go from ground zero to the numbers they attained not only in these ridings, but in all the ridings in BC is as Bill Vander Zalm would say Faaaantastic.

Its easy to sit on ones butt and find fault and criticize, it is an entirely different thing to actually get off your ass and actually do something.

The IPSO Reid Poll take in August 2009 stated that 85% of the people in BC were opposed to this tax. They went on to say that when you have an issue that is opposed by that high of a percentage then in effect you have an issue that has absolutely no support. So the Liberals have known since the outset that this issue does not have any support from any of the people in the Province, and they went ahead with it anyway.

So the question is???? Who represents the people of the Province??? Who represents Big Business and Big Corporations?? I think that it is pretty obvious.

The most surprising thing about this whole process is that so far not one MLA has had the balls to stand up and tell Campbell and his co-horts to go to hell, and walk across the floor and become an independent, and represent his constituents. This should give you some indication of the moral fibre, and character of those we have elected.

It would be more appropriate to call them Weasles than Members of the Legislative Assembly.

This process is far from being over. I suspect that if Campbell does not do something about this HST in the very near future he will be facing RECALL along with some of his spineless buddies.

A Recall will force his hand, and because it can start this November it takes away his strategy of drawing this issue out until September 2011 in the hope that all will be forgiven.

Have a nice day.

"I have been around for a long time and I can tell you that this issue was about as galvanizing as it an get"

While I don't really disgaree with the content of your post, the fact remains that only 20% of the people came out to sign the petition. That means 80% made a choice not to for whatever reason. Call it what you want, but to me that isn't galvanizing.

NMG. You have to look beyond the simple number of 20% for therefore 80% against.

The fact of the matter is that for every 20 households that were approached by canvassers 19 signed the petition. It was rare indeed for someone not to sign.

So what does this mean. Firstly its pretty obvious that everyone who went downtown and signed were determined to get their names on the petition. It is also pretty obvious that a large number of people were waiting for canvassers to come to their doors.

Had the canvassers been better organized, and concentrated more effort on the door to door campaign the numbers would no doubt have been doubled.

Lack of advertising revenue, to get the message out as to signing locations was part of the problem. While the local media (Opinion 250) etc; gave good coverage to this campaign, people still had problems finding out where to go and sign. There were only two places in the greater Prince George to sign mainly because of finance and manning constraints. Its not like an election where you have polling stations scattered through out the ridings. Rural areas especially were hard pressed to sign.


On the other hand when you take places like Valemount BC and Mackenzie BC where the population is in one riding and the majority of of people are in one town, the number achieved were in excess of 50% of the registered voters.

So hopefully you can see that there is more involved to getting signatures under these circumstances.

You can do some of your own polling with freinds and aquaintences to get a sense of how many people actually oppose this tax.

Many people have been patiently waiting for canvassers to come door to door, and as the numbers indicated the 15% target was nearing and/or had been reached quite early in many ridings, those who hadn't signed yet didn't feel the same necessity to come to some fixed location to sign.

They'll still sign if and when the canvassers come to their door. Or if the opportunity readily presents itself somewhere else where they happen to be.

For an all-volunteer organised and staffed effort, financed solely by individuals willing to donate whatever money they could to the campaign, it is a truly monumental accomplishment to have come this far this fast.

Remember, too, there has often been a large element of latent 'defeatism' to overcome amongst many people who see the desired outcome of the whole effort as hopeless of attainment even if the Petition process itself is successful.

That Campbell will just have his own way regardless, and buy his way back into power again in 2013 by spending the bulk of the $ 1.6 billion bribe the Feds offered, but he won't take until then.

They don't think they can make any difference by signing, and it often takes some convincing to get them to realise that in this EVERYONE'S signature IS important, and that they should make every effort to try to sign. Still, and right up until the July 5th deadline.

The canvassers only went to each household once. If you were not home, they did not come back. I was home & signed the petition, but my husband wasn't home and most of my neighbours were still at work, so they also didn't sign the petition. The canvassers had a huge job to do and a very large area to cover in such a short time and the one I had come to my door told me there was no way she'd have time to come back a second time. I know all my neighbours would have signed if they were home. Palopu, you are correct 'the simple number 20% for therefor 80% against' is not accurate. I suspect many others were not home when the canvassers came a knocking. Once the 15% was reached, most didn't both going down to sign. Good post too Palopu!

I'm afraid that this is an example of how easily a large group of people, many who never voted for the existing government in the first place, can be motivated by deception into rallying against something that may well be in their best interest. The Liberal government, while I have no particular love for the group in general, consciously chose to engage in an initiative that they knew full well would be unpopular but was what they believed was essential for the health of of our province's future. The Retail Merchant's Association of BC and many other knowledgeable groups supported the proposal becasue they understood the benefits that would be derived for the provincial population in general over the coming years.

I'd like to think that those who may crush the initiative might recognize their error in the future as health care, education and other essential services continue to decline from the lack of adequate public resources. Unfortunately, these same individuals will likely be following some other emotional detour and never understand what may have been.

Democracy? I think not.

Truth be told, sungod, is that the entire anti-HST process is about democracy. The HST is a massive tax shift, and in a democracy the people have a right to make a decision on such a major initiative. The Liberals, knowing that the move was unpopular, deliberately lied about the HST before the election. The people have stood up to say that this is not going to happen without a fight.

Your main point is that the HST is needed to provide funds to the province. That is not going to happen. The HST will not bring in new funds-it is revenue neutral. Even the Liberals admit this. Why people think the province will go bankrupt without the HST baffles me-there have been no studies that report any new resources for government funds under the HST.

We are having new taxes added to our existing payments because the Liberals lied about the amount of the deficit, and the money they got from the feds made the deficit look smaller. Tell me-if the HST is "the best thing we could do for the economy of our province" why did it take the Liberals 8 years to implement it? And why did it come AFTER an election, not before? Once you answer these questions, you might have a better idea of why the anti-HST movement is the most democratic event to occur in BC in years.

Sungod is one of those people who has a condecending attitude. If you read his post he basically says that he and his cronies in the Retail Merchants Assoc., and other knowledgeable groups know what is the best for the rest of us.

This is one attitude that is prevelangt through out the Province and the Government, It makes me so bloody mad when some fool like sungod actually thinks he knows what is best for the rest of us.

A condesending attitute rife with misinformation, and running on propaganda, is why we get into these situations in the first place.

People like sungod beleive that they are doing you a favour by allowing you to work for them, and never are able to grasp the concept that if it wasnt for people working for them and buying their products they would be out of business.

Cancelling the PST for business and transferring these costs to people who cant afford to pay these taxes might work well for the business groups, but it certainly doesnt work for those who have to pick up the slack.

We have to stop the Government and Corportate bums from bleeding us dry.

Palopu:-"People like sungod beleive that they are doing you a favour by allowing you to work for them, and never are able to grasp the concept that if it wasnt for people working for them and buying their products they would be out of business."
-----------------------------------------

That's EXACTLY right! No one has said it better yet than the way you've just expressed it here, Palopu.

The people still supporting and running the BC Liberal Party today have a more narrow minded, selfish, condescending attitude than ANY other group of people in government we've had in office since the Great Depression.

Dave Barrett's NDP government came close, only on the other side, in the early '70's. But even their Union- boosting, socialist inanities pale in comparison to the unmitigated money-mad attitude of this greedy, arrogant mob of self-centered snobs.

Sungod:-"I'd like to think that those who may crush the initiative might recognize their error in the future as health care, education and other essential services continue to decline from the lack of adequate public resources. Unfortunately, these same individuals will likely be following some other emotional detour and never understand what may have been.

-----------------------------------------

So why not just have the government take ALL our money in taxes then, Sungod? Would it THEN have enough 'money' to stop the decline in health care, education and other essential services? If it took it ALL?

Of course it would then have to provide us with the things we now spend the other half of our annual income that's left after taxes on providing for ourselves.

Things like food, clothing and shelter ~ you know, the bare basics of living. We could even have a bureaucracy that decides what's good for us, what's the most 'cost-effective'. What kind of food we should eat, clothes we should wear, and houses we should live in ~ all so we could "live within our means". And avoid any frivolous spending on 'luxuries' or 'entertainment', or anything other than maybe a few State-sanctioned pleasures. To avoid all those horrible things that are bankrupting us all.

We wouldn't have to worry about the low 'savings rate' that the economists are always bemoaning won't be enough to keep us in our old age. The government will have ALL our money, and we'll have nothing to 'save'. And no need to anyways.

Why we'll be just like some of those other paradises on Earth where their governments have already achieved what we're heading for. Or have they? Well, North Korea is still around, isn't it?

You know, Sungod, some of your fellow travelers on here, people like Stompin Tom, and He spoke, Born in BC, and a number of others, and the entire Gordon Campbell BC L:iberal government itself, are perfect illustrations of the old saying that if you go too far to the "right" you'll end up on the "left". And the reverse is true, too.

What we NEED, and need badly, is, "...neither a Party of the 'right', nor of the 'left', but a genuine, grass-roots, middle-of-the-road, free-enterprise Movement, with special priviledges for none, but equal opportunity for ALL."

We had that once ~ it was called Social Credit, though it never entirely lived up to the promise contained within its name. Still, it was better than what came before, or afterwards.

I don't know what such a Movement will be called nowadays, and I could care less, but that one does develop, and soon, is of vital importance to us ALL. And the attempt to defeat this odious tax, and call a halt to what's coming after it, is the FIRST STEP in that direction.

Oh my! Such anger, such fear.

I accept that it's the democratic right of Canadian citizens to harshly criticize others for their opinions. Horray for democracy! But, for the record, Sungod is not a retail merchant and if, in some future comment I refer to the Chinese National Party, be aware that I am not a member of that either.

If one were to read with understanding one would have noted that my comment was not in suport of the tax inasmuch as it was sadly noting the wholistic loss of direction of such a large flock of sheep. And who are they following now? Why it's someone they absolutely despised and tossed away like some periah a few years earlier.

Make no mistake. We will be paying more, be it in the form of an HST, PST, GST or hypocrisy. Hey, but if it makes you feel good to pretend you're in charge, that's OK by me.

The only "large flock of sheep" that have a complete loss of direction are those "sheep" we have as Liberal MLA's. Or are they "parrots"? Ones that can only repeat what they've been trained to say by their infallible "leader".

There has been no suggestion that Mr. Vander Zalm is in the running for any elected office of any kind, or to do anything more than help have this odious tax rescinded.

That he has been able to unite such a large number of British Columbians with widely divergent political views, and get them to put their "Party politics" aside and come together to try to stop this tax is a credit to the man. Whether you like him, hate him, or are ambivalent about him.

And it's also to the credit of those others still vieing for elected office themselves, who've put their other differences aside to join him, and us, in this fight.

This is a cause that transcends Party politics ~ it is about whether we shall continue to have "no taxation without representation", or whether a small group of elitists who fund those at the top of the political Party pile shall dictate what we'll pay for the primacy of THEIR benefit.