The campaign against the harmonized sales tax spilled over to the B.C. Conservative Party Tuesday, as one of its directors resigned over what he saw as an attempt to dilute opposition to the tax and freeze out anti-HST campaigner Chris Delaney. "I have lost confidence in the leadership of the party and the direction it has chosen to follow," wrote director-at-large Blake MacKenzie in an open letter to party members. "I can no longer support a party that sides with the B.C. Liberals and the federal Conservative Party over the HST and over the people of B.C."He went on to accuse "an unelected group of self-ordained political brokers" of having "marginalized" Delaney, a former deputy Conservative leader who has lately emerged under Bill Vander Zalm as second-in-command in the anti-HST forces.
"Chris Delaney is the most public figure in our party and the leadership regards him as though he is a liability to the party," wrote MacKenzie, putting the blame on party president Wayne McGrath and his key adviser (and ex-federal MP) Randy White and others with links to the federal Conservatives."The one person who could point thousands of people to our party and has, with his involvement as a leader in the Fight HST organization, helped to demolish the B.C. Liberals, is considered by these unelected newcomers as not good enough to side with or mention his name in conjunction with the B.C. Conservative Party name. Shame!"MacKenzie is the second member of the party board to resign over similar complaints in recent weeks. Seeking some background to these intrigues, I contacted him and was treated to a fascinating tour of recent party history and a reminder of the adage about organizations where "the infighting is so vicious because the stakes are so small."(more)
But I'm indebted to another Conservative for drawing my attention to a possibly related development, namely the registration with Elections BC of a new political party, the B.C. First Party. The name invites no obvious associations with existing federal parties and could also serve as shorthand for objections to the HST, namely that the province is giving up control of its own sales tax base. The registered contact for the new party is a resident of east Vancouver, one Sal Vetro, who also served as financial agent for the anti-HST initiative. Unless I miss my guess, when he put down a marker for B.C. First, he also registered a future vehicle for the political ambitions of Bill Vander Zalm and Chris Delaney.
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