Former Premier Vander Zalm plans Anti HST Rally

[Black SC2]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...hst-rally.html

Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm says he intends to launch an anti-HST campaign with a Sept. 19 rally in Vancouver.

Vander Zalm said Tuesday he believes outrage over the merger of B.C.'s sales tax with the federal GST will translate into support for petitions against the plan.

That puts the former Social Credit premier in league with his one-time political foes — the B.C. NDP — who started a province-wide petition against the harmonized sales tax July 31.

Vander Zalm said if 10 per cent of voters in each constituency in B.C. sign the petition, the provincial government would be required to hold a referendum on the issue.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen went public July 23 with the government's plans to introduce the harmonized tax in the summer of 2010.

The plan has come under criticism from consumer and business groups and from members of both of B.C.'s dominant political parties.

Last week, Campbell's former deputy premier openly criticized the B.C. Liberal government's handling of the HST issue, saying the way it was introduced was "sneaky."

Christy Clark also said province was taking "a big bribe" from the federal government, which will provide B.C. $1.6 billion in transition funding if it goes to a harmonized tax

Fuck yeah! Go Bill Go.

[Amuse]

Good idea

[Enraged]

so where do we go to sign this petition?

on a side note, the government has done a HORRIBLE job explaining what the benefits of HST would be, simply saying that it would be good for business and jobs in BC, and ignoring questions about how it will increase costs of living individuals and families. maybe if they had been open from the start, there wouldnt be such a backlash now.

edit: heres the link for the petition if you are interested in signing it: http://www.bcndp.ca/stopHST

[projectcivic]

I agree, with the way the Liberals are going about this is sneaky. They keep saying how it will benifit business, jobs, and therefore us the people but I have yet to hear them really explain how that works otherthen it will save business money and that in turn will save us money but why aren't they really explaining how it will save money?
I would sign a petition at this point until I hear some information that could change my thougths on this.

[Great68]

The argument is that it helps the businesses, therefore employees will benefit from increased wages.

Maybe. But not in the magnitude they make it seem like.

So you get a pay raise. Great, now you can afford to pay the tax hike on everything that wasn't taxed before.

[Speed2K]

I would have no problem with an HST if they also lowered the rate to say 10%, instead of 12%.

[Black SC2]

It's especially troubling to me to hear the Gov continue to say that it will help businesses in the wake of myriad business owners publicly voicing concerns about how much the HST is going to hurt them. Who knows the bottom line of small business more: the bureaucrats or the owners?

[MR_BIGGS]

If he can get 10% of the population in each constituency to sign a petition there could be a referendum.

[Enraged]

I like how one of the guys from the resteraunt accociations came out and said it would hurt them the most, and they are (all resteraunts combined in BC) a larger industry than oil & gas, forestry, etc

[Great68]

The other thing I don't like is that B.C. is essentially giving control of its tax revenue to the Federal government.

With the PST we keep our share here, with the HST we're relying on the federal government to give us our share.