Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater said since he is not targeted in the first round of MLA recalls, he plans to continue his work throughout the riding. Photo by Osoyoos Times/File
OSOYOOS TIMES-November 24, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
Although he was once at the top of Fight HST’s recall hit list, Liberal MLA John Slater, who represents the Boundary-Similkameen electoral district, won’t be targeted in the first round of recall efforts.
On Nov. 15, Fight HST organizers announced that the first Liberal MLA to be targeted for recall is Ida Chong, who represents the Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding and is the provincial science and universities minister.
The recall effort against Chong began on Nov. 22.
More than 200 volunteers signed up in Chong’s riding to help gather thousands of signatures necessary to have the MLA recalled as part of a contest launched by Fight HST earlier this fall.
During the contest, recall proponents in 18 B.C. ridings competed from the end of September until Nov. 15 to round up the most volunteers to work on the recall.
The three ridings where the most volunteers for the recall campaign were signed up are the starting points for recall actions.
While Chong is targeted in Round 1, Slater is not targeted until the fifth round which is scheduled to begin on April 1 and wrap up on June 1.
As of the last week of Fight HST’s recall contest, 179 canvassers had signed up to gather signatures in this riding.
Fight HST leader and former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm has said the recall effort is meant to pressure the government into getting rid of the controversial harmonized sales tax introduced in July.
His group ran a successful petition campaign earlier this year aimed at forcing the government to quash the tax and British Columbians will cast votes next September on whether the HST should be repealed.
Vander Zalm said in a media release if the government does not get rid of the tax before the first three rounds of recalls are completed by March 30, then two more recalls will be added each month until the tax is cancelled.
“It’s really up to the B.C. Liberal government,” he said. “They can stop this whole thing by listening to the people who elected them by cancelling the HST.”
In order to begin the process of having an MLA recalled, volunteers must collect signatures from 40 per cent of the voters that were registered in the MLA’s riding at the time of the May, 2009, election.
In the Boundary-Similkameen riding, there were more than 28,000 registered voters at the time of the last election, meaning roughly 11,500 signatures are required here for the recall campaign.
Recall organizers said they believe they’ll have an even better shot at getting all the signatures needed to reach the 40-per-cent threshold because they’ll have access to Elections BC’s voters lists.
During the Initiative Petition effort, 2,874 signatures were needed in this riding in order to meet the 10-per-cent threshold required for the petition to succeed.
More than 10,500 signatures were collected here and of those, 8,712 were verified by Elections BC as valid.
Slater said he is glad he is in the last phase of recalls because it gives him a chance to continue his work in the riding and talk to the people he represents.
He also said he plans to defend himself, possibly through paid advertising, if and when recall efforts begin here, but added any defence campaign would be expensive.
An effort to recall him has nothing to do with anything he has or hasn’t done, Slater said.
Instead, he said, recall organizers are just playing into the hands of the NDP which wants to force British Columbians to go to the poll prior to the next provincial election in 2013.
Slater said he wants his constituents to give him a chance to continue working for the riding.
“Let me finish my job for four years and then decide whether you want to replace me.”
Asked how he feels when he sees signs up in Osoyoos storefronts promoting the recall effort, Slater, who calls Osoyoos home, said he doesn’t take it personally.
He said it’s no different than during the provincial election campaign last year when people put up signs on their lawns for candidates from other parties.
“You have to have a thick skin,” he said.
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