In the opinion of Norm Macdonald, MLA for the Columbia River Revelstoke riding, the provincial Liberals will ignore the will of the people on the HST at their peril.

Macdonald says there are now over 7,000 signatures on the petition asking that the HST legislation be repealed — that’s over 30 per cent of eligible voters in the riding.

He says that over 7,000 signatures have been collected in Kootenay East, Shuswap has over 10,000 and over 40 per cent of eligible voters have signed in Peace River.

“It’s really been an amazing groundswell of public enthusiasm,” he said. “It’s all volunteers. For instance, here in Kimberley you had Doug Cosier just step forward and start getting signatures. It’s amazing the work he and the other volunteers have done. When Vander Zalm came through, there was no structure. It’s just been built from the ground up. It’s exciting to see people so passionate.”

The question now is, what will happen when the petition is presented to the Legislature.

“It will come to the legislature to be voted upon. The petition asks that the PST be reinstated and the HST removed. It will be required to either be voted on by the legislature or go to referendum.”

Macdonald believes that the government will have to listen to the will of the people.

“If you don’t listen I think you’ll start to see recall campaigns. I would say that the BC Liberals have to know that their standing as a political party is incredibly damaged. They cannot afford to show any more contempt for the people who put them in power.

“Right now each and every person knows the depth of feeling in their communities. To ignore it would be fundamentally wrong and many MLA’s realize that.”

Macdonald says that what’s happening to the Liberals isn’t new in BC politics.

“It happened to the Social Credit party and the NDP. As soon as you lose the trust of the public it’s like a switch. Once it’s gone it’s gone.