Anti HST Petition Reaches 300,000 Mark

Delta – The Fight HST citizens Initiative petition to repeal the HST broke the 300,000 signatures mark as of Monday May 3, up an astonishing 155,000 signatures from last week’s total, says Fight HST Lead Organizer, Chris Delaney.

The Initiative, led by former BC Premier Bill Vander Zalm, has now been signed by approximately 10% of the registered voters across BC, Delaney said, with two months left before the July 5 deadline.

But there is still a long way to go, Delaney says, because the 10% total for the Initiative to succeed must be reached in every one of the 85 electoral districts in BC.

Delaney said the sheer size of the number of signatures this early in the petition drive shows that the BC Liberal government’s attempt to discourage and intimidate voters from signing has failed completely.

“If anything, the attacks last week by BC Finance Minister Colin Hansen have backfired, and more people than ever want to sign the petition and send the government a message that they won’t be bullied or threatened into accepting the Hated Sales Tax,” said Delaney.

Former BC premier, Bill Vander Zalm, who is leading the Fight HST forces, said he is encouraged by the number of young people now signing the petition.

“In Vancouver this weekend, we signed up another 2,000 people in one day, and the overwhelming majority were students and young people between the ages of 18-30. That is exciting,” said Vander Zalm.

Delaney says there are now 44 ridings that have reached the Elections BC 10% signature threshold, with 17 of those hitting the internal threshold of 15% set by the Fight HST group.

“Over half of BC’s 85 ridings have already reached the Elections BC target in just under four weeks of canvassing. With eight weeks to go, we are ahead of schedule for making our 15% in all 85 ridings,” Delaney explained.

Delaney says the strongest ridings signing up so far are BC Liberal strongholds like Shuswap, Kelowna, Peace River, Boundary Similkameen, and the Cariboo ridings. “But Skeena is now leading the pack with 30% of registered voters signing the petition. This is crossing all traditional political divides and demographics,” said Delaney.

Delaney says the petitioners still have a lot of work to do in Vancouver and Burnaby where organizers started late.

“We had the same issues in Coquitlam and Maple Ridge as well. But both of those regions are up and running now and catching up quickly. We expect the same will happen in the rest of the province over the coming weeks.”