Budget deficits, job creation and fracking are key issues in the 2013 B.C. provincial election campaign, but many say the highly contentious HST will still play a role in voters’ decisions as they head to the polls.

In 2009, just two months after the Liberal government won the election, then-Premier Gordon Campbell dropped a bombshell on the B.C. electorate. He introduced a new tax, called the harmonized sales tax.

Many people were outraged, convinced the government knew the HST was in the works prior to the election. It’s an accusation the Premier denied.

"We've been very clear with the HST. It was not on our radar as we went through the election," said Campbell at an August 2009 press conference.

Mario Canseco, vice president of Angus Reid Public Opinion, says B.C. voters weren’t sold and wanted to send the Liberals a message that they felt the tax was brought in behind their backs.  

Angry voters leapt on former premier Bill Vander Zalm's anti-HST bandwagon. Within months, more than 700,000 B.C. residents signed a petition aimed at killing the HST which paved the way for a referendum.

"People who had already seen him [Campbell] as somebody who was pretty arrogant in many cases and very aloof as a head of government were looking at him now as somebody who had lied to them," said Canseco.

In November 2010, Campbell felt he had no choice and he called it quits.

"After considerable soul searching and discussion with my family, I have decided to ask the BC Liberal Party executive to hold a leadership convention at the earliest possible date to select a new leader for our party," said Campbell.

The party elected Christy Clark as its new leader. She promised to cut the HST by two percentage points if British Columbians voted to keep the tax.

In August 2011, the HST was voted out and the province returned to a two-tax system April 1, 2013.   

Despite the abolishment of the tax, 40 per cent of British Columbians polled last month still think the province will eventually adopt the H.S.T. down the road. Just how the next premier will do that will be a major challenge.

"You need to take one lesson into account. Do not do it behind the backs of the British Columbian people, otherwise you will pay the price," said Canseco.