A week after the release of internal documents showing that the B.C. government was studying the HST long before last year's election, Premier Gordon Campbell has yet to show his face and answer calls for his resignation.
Rogue MLA Blair Lekstrom -- who left the BC Liberal caucus in response to public opposition to the new harmonized sales tax -- joined the chorus of dissent spreading across the province on Tuesday.
"You hope that he knows when the time has come. I think, without question, most people would agree that the time has come to have a new premier," Lekstrom told CTV News.
Campbell was supposed to be back at work on Tuesday after a holiday away, but he didn't return. He's scheduled to make a public appearance sometime this week, returning to a province that increasingly distrusts his government, and a party that is beginning to fray at the edges.
Former Williams Lake mayor and prominent longtime Liberal supporter Scott Nelson asked for the premier's resignation on Monday, arguing that the B.C. public feels betrayed by the government.
And last week, the president of a Liberal riding association in Langley called for Finance Minister Colin Hansen to resign in a blog posting, although he recanted after a discussion with Hansen.
Though Campbell hasn't been available to speak to the media, his counterpart in the opposition NDP is happy to address the Liberals' troubles.
"It's pretty clear that the BC Liberals are falling apart. They're so focused on their own issues, their own internal problems, the HST mess, that they're not focused on the things that should matter to British Columbians," NDP leader Carole James told CTV News.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty
