Fat chance any Lib will stand up to Campbell NDP needs just seven vulnerable MLAs to say no to premier

Michael Smyth, The Province March 4, 2010

Don't look now, Terry Lake, but you're at the top of the HST hit list. In the latest front to open in the escalating war over the harmonized sales tax, the New Democrats have targeted MLAs considered vulnerable in the next election. The plan is to bring the battle against the hated tax directly into their backyards -- starting today.

And the first guy in their sights: Lake and his coveted Kamloops-North Thompson riding. Later this month, the Gordon Campbell government will introduce an HST-implementation bill in the legislature. It must pass for the 12-per-cent combined sales tax to kick into effect as planned on July 1. To kill the tax, at least seven Liberal MLAs must break ranks and vote against their own government.

That's the message NDP Leader Carole James will take on the road, starting today with a news conference at a downtown Kamloops bike store, followed by mainstreet leafleting and taking the message into local neighbourhoods. "We will be encouraging people to put pressure on their Liberal MLA to do the right thing, and vote against a tax their own party opposed in the election," James said.She said her barnstorming, election-style tour will deliberately go after Liberal MLAs who won their ridings by narrow margins last May. "It's sort of sad to say, but the best chance to stop the HST is to isolate Liberal MLAs who are scared of losing their seats." In addition to Lake, I'm told the NDP's hit list of Liberals includes Dave Hayer (Surrey-Tynehead), Don McRae (Comox Valley), Marc Dalton (Maple Ridge-Mission), Eric Foster (Vernon-Monashee), Harry Bloy (Burnaby Lougheed) and Richard Lee (Burnaby North).

What are the chances of this strategy working? Absolute none. There's little hope of a single Liberal standing up to Campbell, never mind seven. But this is still a clever political stunt by New Democrats, who would love to paint scarlet letters on Liberals in swing ridings. How can the Libs fight the backlash? Finance Minister Colin Hansen tried Tuesday by saying the government will pass a law requiring HST revenue to be spent on health care. I doubt the public will fall for it. Another Liberal tactic might be to ram the HST-enabling law through the legislature as quickly as possible. But the NDP is ready for that, too. "We'll use every tool at our disposal to delay the vote -- we'll debate, we'll propose amendments," said James, who wants to ride that wave of anti-HST anger as long and as far as possible.