Clark mum on whether HST defeat will spark early election government, whether, fingers, public, saying

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Clark mum on whether HST defeat will spark early election


Two years of bumbling on the harmonized sales tax came home to roost for the B.C. Liberal government Friday, but Premier Christy Clark isn't saying whether the public's rejection of her government's harmonized sales tax is enough to plunge the province into an early election.

The Liberals took stock of the defeat of the HST Friday, and again pointed fingers at the abrupt and toneless introduction of the tax in 2009 under then-premier Gordon Campbell.

That introduction was so damaging — coming with no public consultation — that B.C. officials assumed weeks ago that the public was set to reject the tax and began discussing such a scenario with Ottawa, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon admitted Friday.

"This has obviously been a pretty challenging exercise in public policy development and I think perhaps a lesson ... in how not to introduce major public policy change," Falcon said.

"We did our very best to try and ameliorate that very poor start and obviously we weren't successful in getting us all the way through."

Falcon said the government accepts responsibility for the HST's demise. "The buck stops with us; we're responsible."

But Premier Christy Clark, who inherited the mess after Campbell resigned, moved quickly to distance herself, saying it was time for the province to turn a new page on the issue.

"While I share your concern about the way the HST was brought in, our government tried to make things right by doing things differently," she said, speaking of her consultation efforts and proposal for a two-percentage-point reduction.

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Clark faced a grilling from reporters over whether the tax's defeat meant she would call a snap election.

Two of her MLAs announced in the last week that they won't run again — one, former attorney general Barry Penner, citing pressure from party officials to put together his re-election campaign.

But the premier refused to answer any election questions.

"The legislature is scheduled to sit in October," she said as an answer to a direct election question. "We will be launching our jobs plan, that I have been working on for many months now, this fall as well."

She accused reporters of being more interested in an election than she is.

But shortly after she addressed reporters, Clark sent an email to B.C. Liberal party supporters asking them to donate to the party to help fight the possibility of an NDP government.

Opposition NDP leader Adrian Dix mocked the Liberal government's explanations for the tax's demise.

"Let's be clear, had the Liberals been honest in the last election about their intention to bring in the HST, they wouldn't have won the election," Dix said.

"That's why they misled people. I know Mr. Falcon appears not to have learned that lesson. He talks about the difficulty of explaining tax policy to British Columbians. I think British Columbians know very well how the HST worked for them."

Conservative party leader John Cummins said the Liberals wasted millions trying to convince the public it was a tax in their interest.

"This vote is as much a rejection of the manner in which this Liberal government conducts the people's business, as it is a rejection of the HST," Cummins said.

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B.C. Premier Christy Clark isn't saying whether the public's rejection of her government's harmonized sales tax is enough to plunge the province into an early election..