Osoyoos's Zach Poturica, a supporter of the B.C. Liberals, said he won't apologize for a comment he posted on Twitter comparing Fight HST leader Bill Vander Zalm and pop star Michael Jackson. Photo by Paul Everest - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-October 6, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
The Fight HST organization is asking for a young supporter of the B.C. Liberals living in Osoyoos to apologize for a recent tweet that compared Fight HST leader Bill Vander Zalm to deceased pop star Michael Jackson.
Zach Poturica, 21, posted a comment on his Twitter account on Sept. 29 stating that “Vander Zalm to politics is what Michael Jackson was to children, a lost (and) confused person with an amusement park.”
Twitter is a social networking website that allows its users to post short messages in a forum where other people can observe their comments.
In a media release issued on Sept. 30, Fight HST stated that it wanted an apology from the B.C. Liberal Party and Poturica as well as a retraction of the “inappropriate comments.”
Chris Delaney, a spokesman for the organization, said in the release that “Poturica’s comments are offensive and have no place in the debate over the Harmonized Sales Tax.”
Poturica worked as a communications director for the B.C. Young Liberals up until August of 2008 and now does volunteer work for the party.
He said he has been interested in politics since the age of nine and can often be seen at local appearances of Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater.
Poturica said he doesn’t feel an apology is in order as the comment was meant to be humorous.
The posting was meant to compare Vander Zalm with Jackson in that they are confused and both owned amusement parks, Poturica said.
Jackson, who passed away in 2009, owned an amusement park called the Neverland Valley Ranch and Vander Zalm owned Fantasy Gardens, a theme park in Richmond.
Controversies surrounding Vander Zalm’s ownership of the park while he was premier of B.C. ultimately forced his resignation in 1991.
That’s where the comparison ends, Poturica said, adding he never meant to imply any suggestion that Vander Zalm was similar to the pop star in terms of the allegations of child molestation that were brought against Jackson.
Poturica said the big question he wanted people to consider when reading his Twitter comment was “Is Vander Zalm a person that people should be trusting?”
He also said he feels people are following Vander Zalm blindly, just as some of Jackson’s fans may have followed him without considering what the singer was truly all about.
Poturica said he has no plans to remove the comment from his Twitter account and the tweet was still posted as of Oct. 4.
Drawing attention to the Twitter post comes down to “damage control” on the part of Vander Zalm and his team in response to recent controversial comments from Fight HST supporters, Poturica said.
“They’re desperate enough using something out of the recycling bin that’s 30 hours old.”
Early last week, a Kelowna-based canvasser for Fight HST’s current MLA-recall campaign resigned after making comments defending Ernst Zundel, a Holocaust denier.
The organization responded to the resignation by saying that it could not be responsible for looking in to the backgrounds of every person who comes out to support anti-HST efforts.
Delaney also said that since the Liberals jumped all over the incident and called for apologies, they should have no problem apologizing for Poturica’s remarks.
“This is a young BC Liberal activist who should know better than to make such terrible comments and we hope he and his party will apologize and retract immediately,” Delaney said in the media release. “Let’s debate the HST and get away from personal smears like this.”
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