Anti HST Petition Picking Up Steam

Delta – Another 105,000 British Columbians signed the Fight HST petition to repeal the HST last week, bringing the total signatures reported as of Sunday, April 25, 2010 to 145,549 province-wide, says Chris Delaney, Lead Organizer for the Bill Vander Zalm Initiative petition.

“This is a significant increase over our Week 2 report, and shows the momentum continuing to build across the province. Twenty Ridings have met or exceeded the Elections BC threshold of 10% of registered voters signatures already, with seven of those reaching 15% or better. This is a phenomenal achievement in only two weeks of steady campaigning for signatures,” Delaney explained.

Delaney says the big ridings so far are Cariboo-Chilcotin, Cariboo North, Parksville-Qualicum, Peace River North, Shuswap, Skeena, Fort Langley-Aldergrove, Langley, Abbotsford South, and Chilliwack-Hope, with Kamloops North, Nanaimo, Columbia River-Revelstoke, Boundary-Similkameen, Delta North, Saanich North and Victoria Beacon Hill all posting 3,000 signatures or more in each riding as well.

“The good news is we are getting strong numbers everywhere in the province. There is no single region or riding we are canvassing that is not getting strong results. We have now achieved over 48% of the total signatures required for a successful petition in just under 3 weeks. With 9 weeks left to go, we are on track to meet our internal threshold of 15% of registered voters’ signatures in all 85 Electoral Districts in BC,” said Delaney.

Bill Vander Zalm, the leader of the grassroots organization conducting the petition, says the only thing slowing his team down is the time it takes to gather the signatures, “Quite frankly, if most of our volunteers didn’t have to work for a living, we would be done by now. These numbers are even more astounding when you consider the bulk of them were collected only on weekends.”

“We will keep going until we reach the 15% threshold we have set for ourselves in every riding, or until Premier Campbell cries ‘uncle’ and agrees to withdraw the HST, whichever comes first,” said the smiling former premier.

“The idea that the HST is a done deal that cannot be reversed is rapidly collapsing under the reality of a citizen revolt that has spread right across the province, and is now threatening to bring down the government with ‘Recalls’ if they don’t listen to the people,” said Vander Zalm.

Page 11, Section 42 of the CITCA Agreement signed between BC and Ottawa says: “The terms and conditions of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this Part, until the date that is specified by a Party in written notice that is delivered to the other Party setting out the Party’s desire to terminate this Agreement.”

“We thought it was important to reference the ‘Termination Clause’ of the HST Agreement for the premier, since he may want to avail himself of it very soon,” Vander Zalm concluded.