XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: cognomen@domus.ca   
      
   Vander Zalm's army takes battle against HST across B.C.   
      
      
   Times Colonist - April 7, 2010 - Canwest News Service   
      
      
   VICTORIA - A small army of canvassers amassed by former premier Bill Vander   
   Zalm hit the   
   streets across the province Tuesday, armed with a petition aimed at killing   
   B.C.'s   
   controversial 12 per cent harmonized sales tax.   
      
   Under the province's Recall and Initiative Act, the group has just 90 days to   
   gather the   
   signatures of 10 per cent of the registered voters in each of the province's   
   85 electoral   
   districts - about 300,000 signatures in total.   
      
   "It's been a little wild today," Fight HST's lead organizer Chris Delaney   
   said, as the   
   group - estimated by some within the movement to be nearly 5,000-volunteers   
   strong -   
   busily photocopied and distributed petition forms provided by Elections B.C.   
      
   The group's website, fighthst.com, was so busy it crashed Tuesday morning -   
   which Delaney   
   took as a good sign.   
      
   "I'm actually very confident in terms of being able to gather signatures - one   
   of the big   
   e-mails I'm getting today is, 'Where do I sign?' " he said.   
      
   The B.C. Liberals introduced a bill in the legislature for the HST on March   
   30. It's   
   supposed to come into effect on July 1. The new tax eliminates the seven per   
   cent   
   provincial sales tax and creates a new seven per cent tax that will be   
   combined, or   
   "harmonized," with the five per cent federal GST.   
      
   Opposition to the tax centres around the fact the HST will be applied to   
   everything the   
   GST covered, which includes many items previously exempt from the PST.   
      
   With about three million registered voters in B.C., Fight HST needs about   
   300,000   
   signatures. But key is signing up 10 per cent of registered voters in all 85   
   ridings.   
   [ = = = ]   
      
   Under the recall act, if the petition gets enough signatures, the province's   
   chief   
   electoral officer would send a copy of it, and its draft bill to repeal the   
   HST, to the   
   legislature's select standing committee on legislative initiatives. That   
   committee, which   
   is dominated by Liberal MLAs, would have to do one of two things: Recommend   
   that the   
   government introduce the anti-HST bill into the house, or return the issue to   
   Elections   
   B.C. for a provincewide referendum.   
      
   To satisfy the law, all the government would have to do is introduce the   
   anti-HST bill in   
   the house - it wouldn't have to debate it, give it second reading, or pass it.   
   In fact,   
   the Liberal majority could call a vote and squash the bill immediately.   
      
   But if the HST petition actually gets to that point, politicians will probably   
   be scared   
   enough to tread lightly, said Pilon and Ruff.   
      
   If a referendum went ahead, the majority of registered voters would have to   
   vote in favour   
   of the anti-HST bill, and more than half of registered voters in at least   
   two-thirds of   
   the electoral districts in the province would have to support it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)