Gordon Campbell’s $4 billion tax hike is going to hit you hard.
The BC Liberals didn’t tell the truth about the HST.
Before the election, Campbell promised he wouldn’t impose a Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST. But just days after the vote he broke that promise, without any consultation.
In less than a year, Campbell’s HST will cost you a lot of money on everyday goods and services, kill jobs and hurt the BC economy just when working families need a break.
Tell Gordon Campbell what you think – sign the petition today.
THE PETITION TO STOP THE BC LIBERAL HST
We, the undersigned, believe Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals didn’t tell the truth about the HST, didn’t consult, and don’t have a mandate to impose this $4 billion tax hike. We call on the Campbell government to scrap plans to implement the HST in 2010.
Don’t sign it.
Copy and paste it into your own email account, add your signature and send it to your MLA cc Gordo.
Even better write an old fashioned letter. They don’t pay attention to online petitions and WTF should they?
With over 80 % of British Columbians opposed to the HST with some 70% strong opposed to the HST, probably the most effective way to turn the heat up on the Government with the least amount of work/resources, is to start a letter writing campaign to the government MLA’s - particularly those in the Cabinet.
The way the correspondence systems for the elected officials is set up - or rather have traditionally been set up, is that the incoming correspondence has to be logged into a tracking system. Then each MLA who receives the correspondence is supposed to generate a letter of acknowledgment/response.
With the sheer volume of letters that can be generated that states the person’s opposition to the HST, the government’s system will be quickly overwhelmed. The staff will need to address the service delivery problem. The elected officials soon hear of the overwhelming problem, and the word starts to spread that “people are really p-off with this HST” and the elected officials start to talk about how they might be able to remedy the situation, particularly if they feel vulnerable in their own ridings.
This approach has historically helped generate enough pressure for MLA’s Cabinet and backbenchers to start talking about alternative approaches and this can work with the HST and that they simply need to drop the HST.
Of course, the letters need to be sent to the GOVERNMENT OFFICES and not to the constituency offices as the buzz needs to be created in Victoria. Local campaigns to get people to write letters to the key ministers/MLA’s will help ensure that lots of letters create overflow and force the issues with the decision makers when they have to start pulling staff from the premier’s office to handle the additional work of the letters (tracking and responding).
It does not have the appeal of an attempted recall campaign, but it has historically been effective in getting the politicians to change their minds. A few important news releases indicating that the letter writing campaign is underway will help build momentum and help convey that ordinary British Columbians are fed up with the HST.
Just a couple of thoughts on how the people might be able to reverse a very unpopular decision. :)
I have sent 2 hand written letters, opposing the HST, to BC’s Premier and Minister of Finance. Every letter you sent counts for 6,000 persons. It took me 20 minutes by the time I was done. You can work hard for a whole week and get a couple of hundered autographs. You sent your petition to Victoria and figured they will listen to you. I have great news for you your petition goes straight to file 13. You don’t even get a reply. Be straight forward to the point, use simple words in your letter and send it away and you will receive a reply.
The Legislature goes back in next Tuesday and when Campbell is handed petititions with over 35,000 signatures (as of today), they become a matter of record and must be addressed. There is no way they can go to file 13.