Elections BC has officially approved a petition opposing the province's new harmonized sales tax, former premier Bill Vander Zalm announced Wednesday.
He said he was pleased with the result, but "very disappointed" to learn that Elections BC's acting chief electoral officer Craig James will not act on the petition until outstanding court proceedings concerning the HST are complete.
That means that beginning in November, the anti-HST campaign will turn its attention to a recall campaign for Liberal MLAs, Vander Zalm told reporters.
"We will recall every Liberal MLA in the province, if that's what it takes," he said.
Vander Zalm launched the province-wide petition earlier this year, and organizers say they collected more than 700,000 names of people opposing the HST by the time the document was handed in.
Elections BC has spent the past six weeks verifying whether the petition garnered valid signatures from at least 10 per cent of registered voters in every riding.
Finance Minister Colin Hansen said in a press release Wednesday that the government will make a decision on how to proceed with the petition once it has been forwarded by the chief electoral officer.
He said that he applauded the anti-HST initiative as "a great example of democracy," but added, "I continue to support the HST because it's the right policy to build our economy and create jobs across B.C."
With files from The Canadian Press
