HST gets ex-premier Vander Zalm hopping mad

By Katie Mercer, via the Victoria Times Colonist:

One of B.C.'s feistiest former premiers is calling for a revolt against the Liberal government's new harmonized sales tax.
Bill Vander Zalm -- the defiant Dutchman who resigned as Socred premier in 1991 -- says something needs to be done about the "$2-billion tax grab."
And he's willing to lead the charge.
"That's why Bill Vander Zalm thought, 'Well, if nobody else is going to bring this out, I'm going to have to step to the fore and do it anyways,'" the 75-year-old told The Province Thursday.
"I don't want to get involved in politics, but I'm concerned about what's happening to the province and I don't mind tackling issues."
Beginning next July, the seven-per-cent provincial sales tax and the five-per-cent goods and services tax will be merged into a 12-per-cent HST.
Previously PST-exempt items -- restaurant meals, taxi fares, hydro and cable bills and more -- will be seven per cent more expensive.
Vander Zalm says he's irked that the Liberals broke their election promise to not introduce a new tax during an economic downturn. What's worse, he says, is how they announced it.
It was hot and muggy last Thursday -- the same day as commissioner Thomas Braidwood was grabbing headlines with his much-anticipated report on police use of Tasers -- when the announcement was released.
Vander Zalm said it was a smart political move to effectively bury the story. The year-long delay before the tax is implemented will also help citizens to forget the issue, he added.

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