With two and a half months left to go in the anti-HST petition campaign, organizers say they have already reached their signature quota in a handful of ridings – including a few Liberal party strongholds.

Lead organizer Chris Delaney says more than 40,000 signatures have been confirmed, and another 30,000 are "in the pipeline" awaiting verification.

Campaign volunteers have the hefty task of collecting signatures from 10 per cent of registered voters in each of B.C.'s 85 ridings.

But Delaney says 12 ridings have either met or are nearing their threshold, including a few – like Kelowna and Peace River -- traditionally held by the Liberals.

Ridings that are nearing or have exceeded the 10 per cent quota include:

  • Nanaimo
  • Shuswap
  • Kelowna-Mission
  • Kelowna-Lake Country
  • Kelowna-Westside
  • Kamloops North
  • Skeena
  • Cariboo-Chilcotin
  • Powell River-Sunshine Coast
  • Courtenay-Comox
  • Peace River North
  • Peace River South

Canvassers in those ridings won't be packing up any time soon though, Delaney said. They're aiming for at least 15 per cent in each riding.

"We're asking them to continue on and get as many signatures as they can to send a message to the government," he said. "We don't want to leave anybody out just because we reached our target."

The petition campaign began on April 6, and results must be submitted to Elections BC by July 5.

A list of locations available to sign the HST petition can be found at the Fight HST website here.

Liberals fight back 

Faced with record-low popularity, the BC Liberal party has launched a new website and mail out campaign to correct what it calls misinformation critics are perpetuating about the HST.

"They are spreading false information about the HST in order to scare people," finance minister Colin Hansen said.

The cost of the mailer, which will be footed by B.C. taxpayers, has not been released. Hansen says it will be another month at least before residents receive it.

University of Victoria political science professor Dennis Pilon says the facts about HST are no longer the issue -- trust is.

"It is the way the government did it," he said. "The arrogant way that they came into power, they didn't say anything about an HST and then they're ramming this thing through,"

For years, the BC Liberals vowed to never adopt the HST. It even made the same promise during last year's election – but three days after the vote, finance officials in Victoria and Ottawa were already talking about the tax.

"People have a right to be unhappy," Pilon said. "They get in power and introduce a bunch of things we never heard about. Come on, we're supposed to be a democracy."

View the B.C. government's HST website here.

With reports from CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty and Kent Molgat