Yay! Let's all cut and paste!
Political chameleon Bill Vander Zalm rides anti-HST wave
BY STEPHEN HUME, VANCOUVER SUN MAY 25, 2010
Former premier Bill Vander Zalm's dog-and-pony show wends its way through British Columbia's disgruntled hinterlands, our Wonderful Wizard of Oz gleefully tapping the anti-HST sentiment that has become a convenient lightning rod for resentment toward a Liberal government that's outstayed its welcome.
Reports gleaned from the weekly newspapers suggest Vander Zalm's legendary charm has been on display at its dazzling best. In one place, he's the champion of householders beleaguered by the evil property-transfer tax -- unrepentant and largely unchallenged over the fact that his government introduced the hated levy.
In another, he's the dragon-slayer of big Liberal government and defender of small business -- and who cares that while he was premier the small-business tax was nine per cent while under the Liberals it is 3.5 per cent and is going to zero in 2012?
In another, Vander Zalm's the wise town-hall democrat, warning Liberal backbenchers that unless they abandon their government and its commitment to the HST and join his crusade, the people will banish them as they did the federal Progressive Conservatives, later forced to sell their souls to Reform Party radicals in a right-wing coalition. And why should anyone worry that on Vander Zalm's watch once-unassailable Social Credit imploded?
In yet another, he's a "power to the people" reformer, the magnanimous non-partisan leader of all, a bridge over troubled waters in this polarized province.
"I cut across party lines," he told the South Delta Leader back at the beginning of May. "When I have town-hall meetings I have New Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, I have Green Party members, Refederation Party people. They are all there."
I cut across party lines. You can say that again. Vander Zalm ran as a Liberal in 1972. When that bus stalled, he waved the wizard's wand and became a Socred. By 1999, with Social Credit a glowing crater in his wake, he was running for the Reform Party.
Those whose memories are hazy regarding the unravelling of Vander Zalm's government should revisit the report by conflict-of-interest commissioner Ted Hughes. It dealt with the premier's conduct while negotiating the sale of his theme park. Vander Zalm resigned immediately after receiving it.
Now he boasts his anti-HST campaign can be the catalyst for a new provincial party that will reform B.C. politics.
"I'm saying the Liberals in Victoria are opening the door for another party," he told the South Delta paper.
Would Vander Zalm lead this new party? He says no, but then, this is the Liberal-Socred-Reform shape-shifter who once thought the property-transfer tax was a splendid idea.
So it's not unreasonable to wonder whether there might be a hidden agenda, one that would position him to be "available" if the tide was flowing strongly in his favour or to play kingmaker for someone else.
Meanwhile, Carole James and the NDP shovel coal into the over-heated boiler of Vander Zalm's anti-HST express: Who better to reap the benefits of a new party splitting the right-of-centre vote than those who have so often suffered left-of-centre vote-splitting?
As do the provincial Conservatives, themselves driven into the political wilderness following scandals whose stench tainted party fortunes for the next 80 years.
According to the Abbotsford Times, today's reborn Conservatives aim to surf the anti-HST wave and become that third party, displacing Liberals as the right-of-centre choice.
They would ride to power on a pledge to nix the HST, axe the property-transfer tax, slash corporate taxes, double personal-income-tax exemptions and get rid of the provincial sales tax.
By what hocus-pocus they'd recover the lost revenue -- about $11 billion a year, at my guess -- isn't clear. But there are only two ways to do it: Raise taxes somewhere else or further slash government spending. Which would mean cutting programs for the homeless and the elderly, health or education, since they account for most of the provincial budget.
However, as I say, in the Land of Oz, political wizards need only wave their wands and the yellow brick road appears to lead the faithful to that Emerald City, where all desires may be fulfilled and nobody pays any taxes.
shume@islandnet.com© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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Liberals seize potential way to cool HST debate
BY VAUGHN PALMER, VANCOUVER SUN MAY 26, 2010
It was a day when Premier Gordon Campbell showed his sense of humour hasn't deserted him during the furore over the harmonized sales tax.
Was anything more unpopular than the HST? "Well, potentially there's me," he told reporters. "Other than that, there's not much I can think of."
A day, too, when he discounted the threat of recall over the tax. "I've been subject to recall before," he told reporters, referring to failed efforts in 1998 and 2003.
And it was also a day when the often-absent premier made a rare appearance during question period in the legislature to signal how the B.C. Liberals would respond to the near-certainty of a successful petition against the HST.
"If the initiative passes we will carry out the work as laid out in the legislation," said Campbell, referring to the provincial law that allows the public to initiate measures by petition.
Once a petition is validated it is sent to the committee on legislative initiatives. The committee then has 30 days to meet and 90 days to "consider" the initiative.
The B.C. Liberals have every intention of letting that process play out through the fall, according to Campbell: "The initiative will be submitted to the legislative committee for their decision and their direction."
Not good enough for the Opposition New Democrats, who want to expedite the process while the anti-HST mood is on the boil.
Party finance critic Bruce Ralston demanded Campbell either "call a referendum or submit the [measure] to the legislature, not to the committee."
Not likely. After all, the more leisurely committee route is the one specified in the Recall and Initiative Act, legislation drafted by the New Democrats themselves when they were in government in the 1990s.
"I am sure the member is aware of the legislation," the premier replied. "If the initiative is successful, it will be submitted to a legislative committee and they will take the next appropriate steps."
The committee, six Liberals and four New Democrats selected by their respective caucuses, has a relatively free hand.
It can hold hearings, call witnesses, and otherwise scrutinize the initiative, which proposes to extinguish the HST, restore the old provincial sales tax, and compensate British Columbians on a per-capita basis for the balance of any taxes paid.
Given the government majority, the committee will doubtless use the time to try to bring what the Liberals would describe as some much-needed perspective on the question of whether or not repeal is workable and, if so, at what financial penalties to the province.
While the committee is conducting its deliberations, Campbell intends to take the fight into the public arena.
"You may rest assured that I will be out in British Columbia, and I will be reminding British Columbians that this is about their jobs in forestry, in mining," he told the house.
"This is about investment in British Columbia. This is about a competitive tax regime. This is about thinking about our children and their future. That's what this government stands for."
The New Democrats shouldn't have been disappointed to discover that the premier intends to prolong the debate, given that he has to date lost every single round. But they continued to press him to short-circuit the process and send the initiative to the legislature or commit to a referendum then and there.
To recap the contents of their own legislation, it says that at the end of the 90 days of consideration, the committee shall make up its mind. Either to recommend the proposed measure to the legislature. Or to reject it, whereupon it goes to the public for approval in an "initiative vote," conducted as a provincewide referendum.
So in effect Campbell is committed to allow one or the other.
If the committee were to recommend the bill -- not likely, given the Liberal majority -- it would go to the house when it sits in February of 2011. If the referendum option, then the vote would be held on the date specified in law, the last Saturday in September 2011.
Were the New Democrats suggesting that the referendum be brought forward? Not at all, said Opposition House leader Mike Farnworth. The date specified in the existing legislation was fine with them.
Thus the Liberals have seized on a potential way to cool the debate over the HST.
Committee work this fall, leading to referendum in the fall of 2011. And a referendum, be it noted, that would be easier for the government to defeat than the current petition against the HST.
To pass, the initiative vote needs to carry 57 of the current 85 provincial ridings, which is probably doable. It also needs the support of "more than 50 per cent of the total number of registered voters in the province." Meaning 1.5 million "yes" votes, more than the combined vote for both the Liberals and the NDP in the last provincial election.
Not impossible but an uphill fight, even for forces as well organized as the ones arrayed against the HST.
But in order to survive until the fall of 2011, the government would face its own challenges. Not least the need to turn back the threat of recall, however much Campbell is inclined to discount it.
vpalmer@vancouversun.com
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Topic: Fight The HST! (Read 148425 times)