Update: Fight HST campaign targets 18 MLAs
Posted September 20, 2010 11:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Premier Gordon Campbell is not on the list of initial targets for Fight HST’s MLA recall campaign. The group doesn’t think he’ll last the rest of his term.
Chris Delaney with Fight HST announced a list of 18 Liberal MLAs that will be the focus of a volunteer recruitment campaign. The three ridings with the greatest turnout will be the focus of the recall.
John Les, Jane Hawthornthwaite, and Finance Minister Colin Hansen are on the list from the Lower Mainland.
Former Premier Bill Vander Zalm explains why Campbell is missing from the list. “I don’t think he’s going to be around come September of next year. I believe his whole objective is to get beyond the convention and he’ll probably want to resign some time next summer.”
University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Pilon says Fight HST may be losing support.
“The premier has out-foxed the anti-HST movement at this particular moment, by giving them what they want. They cried ‘We wanna have this referendum.’ Now that it’s happening, the movement is asking ‘Now what do we do?’ Their followers, the people who signed the petition, not the activists, are probably saying ‘Well OK, that’s what you asked for, why are you still upset?'” he says.
And Pilon doesn’t share the view that the premier will resign next summer.
Three MLAs will be chosen from the list November 15th and recalls could start in early January.
A full list of the 18 MLAs on the Fight HST hit list:
Colin Hansen – Vancouver-Quilchena
Bill Bennett – Kootenay East
Ida Chong – Oak Bay-Gordon Head
Donna Barnett – Cariboo-Chilcotin
Terry Lake – Kamloops North Thompson
John Slater – Boundary-Similkameen
Marc Dalton – Maple Ridge-Mission
John Les – Chilliwack
Bill Barisoff- Penticton
Steve Thompson – Kelowna-Mission
John Rustad – Nechako Lakes
Ron Cantelon – Parksville-Qualicum
Eric Foster – Vernon-Monashee
Don McRae – Comox Valley
Norm Letnick – Kelowna-Lake Country
Jane Hawthornthwaite – North Vancouver-Seymour
Joan McIntyre – West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky
Ben Stewart – Westside-Kelowna
