Harmonized sales tax is ‘just wrong,’ Vander Zalm says

Adrian Nieoczym Kelowna.com: Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | 6:00 am

Bill Vander Zalm, the colourful former Social Credit premier, is back in the spotlight as he kicks political dust on the current government over it’s planned harmonized sales tax. And tomorrow, he will bring his show to Kelowna. “Everybody is concentrating, as they always do, on Vancouver and Victoria. Nobody thinks of Kelowna, the most important city in the whole province,” Vander Zalm told Kelowna.com about why he is coming here as part of his anti-HST campaign. “I’m hoping to at least make people aware of what we are getting into.”

Vander Zalm’s attempt to defeat the HST is admittedly a long shot. He wants to use B.C.’s Recall and Initiative Act to force the government to hold a referendum on the tax.However, the act has never been successfully used, as forcing a referendum requires 10 per cent of registered voters in every single riding, to sign a petition.But Vander Zalm thinks this is just the sort of issue that could get British Columbians to rise up against their government.“A poll that was done at the very beginning of all this said 85 per cent plus of the people were upset. Now it’s probably up well over 90 per cent are upset with this tax. They don’t want any part of it,” he said.The Ipsos Reid poll released Aug. 6, two weeks after the HST was announced, found that not only do 85 per cent of British Columbians oppose the new tax but 71 per cent “strongly oppose” it.As well, 87 per cent said they expect the tax to have a negative impact on their pocket book, with 51 per cent expecting a “very negative impact.” The survey of 720 adults is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Vander Zalm is spending the next few weeks trying to drum up support around B.C. for his campaign. Tomorrow he will be at Moxie’s Classic Grill, 1730 Cooper Road, for a public luncheon from noon until 1:30 p.m.