We definitely mishandled the introduction of the HST, which, to me, verifies the fact that we didn't plan on this.
- B.C. Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon
I spent several years doing everything I could to defeat former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm and his right-wing Social Credit government.
On Saturday Sept. 19 at 12 noon outside Canada Place in downtown Vancouver, I will be honoured to share the same stage with him!
So what happened? Most recently, the outrageously unfair Harmonized Sales Tax which Premier Gordon Campbell wants to impose - a tax that will add 7 per cent to the cost of a wide range of goods and services currently exempt from Provincial Sales Tax with every dime going to big business tax credits, not public services!
That alone explains politics making strange bedfellows. It's why I am working with Vander Zalm, B.C. Conservative Party Deputy Leader Chris Delaney, business groups and others to fight the HST.
And that's why B.C. New Democratic Party Leader Carole James will be introduced at the anti-HST rally Saturday by Vander Zalm, her political opposite on many issues.
But this isn't the first time I've worked with Bill Vander Zalm, B.C.'s colourful and controversial premier from 1986 to 1991.
When the B.C. Liberal government in 2002 suddenly moved to privatize one-third of B.C. Hydro's operations, I contacted Vander Zalm - which led to me MCing "A Premier Event" - a major protest featuring Vander Zalm and former NDP Premier Dave Barrett - together for the first time, with then-NDP house leader Joy MacPhail, then-Unity Party leader Delaney and then-Green Party leader Adrian Carr.
All agreed Campbell's plan was a disastrous reversal of former Premier W.A. C. Bennett's brilliant 1961 takeover of privately-held B.C. Electric, showing the B.C. Liberals had abandoned citizens from the political centre, left and right.
Later Bill Vander Zalm joined labour unions, community groups, the NDP and Unity to fight the $1 billion privatization of B.C. Rail to CN Rail - another giveaway deal.
And finally I was pleased to work with Vander Zalm again when my clients, the B.C. Shipyard and General Workers' Federation, and many others fought the decision by B.C. Ferries and the B.C. Liberals to build three Super C ferries worth $542 million in Germany, refusing to even allow Vancouver Shipyards to bid.
Bill Vander Zalm, unlike Campbell's B.C. Liberals, believes in standing up for British Columbia and its citizens, not selling them out.
I look forward to working with him and others who believe the HST is a terrible tax that will hurt our economy, deepen the recession and cost us jobs.
So please attend the "Fight HST" rally on Saturday Sept. 19 at 12 noon outside Canada Place in downtown Vancouver.
Hear Bill Tieleman Mondays at 10 a.m. on CKNW AM 980's Bill Good Show. Email: weststar@telus.net
Website: billtieleman.blogspot.com
