At yesterday's Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives meeting, the Committee decided to refer the HST Initiative Petition with the accompanying draft Bill (HST Extenguishment Act) to Elections' BC for the conduct of a non-binding referendum on September 24th, 2011. Under the current rules, a Initiative Vote (referendum) passes if both:
1) 50% of ALL registered voters' in the Province of BC vote in the non-binding referendum (some 1.5 million BC voters' MUST vote or the referendum fails)
2) A simple majority of BC's voters' MUST pass the initiative in 56 of the 85 provincial Electoral Districts'
However, late in the afternoon, BC Premier Gordon Campbell stated that JUST a simple majority of the voters' would have to pass the Initiative in order for the government to rid the Province of the HST. However, this statement is not consistent with the existing Recall & Initiative Act. Former BC Premier and FightHST Co-Leader Bill Vander Zalm has called upon BC Premier Campbell to change the Recall & Initiative Act to comply with Premier Campbell's stated intentions' - see Mr. Vander Zalm's letter to Premier Campbell here.
If the Premier refuses to change the Recall & Initiative Act, how can BC voters' honestly believe the Premier stated intentions with the HST Petition Referendum next September.....? Short of this, I still don't see how recall campaigns will not be launched on November 15th or later. It will be interesting to see if FightHST decides to launch a recall campaign against Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett first or certainly in the first batch of MLA's, given her recent public media statements that she stands by the Premier
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