Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald says that the announcement by Liberal MLA and Minister of Energy Blair Lekstrom that he was leaving the cabinet and the caucus, came as a surprise.

“Blair has always been principled in terms of how he managed his career,” Macdonald said. “He was elected in 2001 and took him a long time to get into cabinet. Many of us felt it was because he occasionally chose to vote against the government on matters of principle.

“The people he represents obviously feel very strongly about the HST. What he did is what you’d hope an MLA would do. It’s something you have to respect him for.”

Macdonald says the success of the Initiative Act (the HST petition) is indicative of where people are on the HST.

“I see the government hoping that public anger will dissipate. I see no sign of it.

“What they should do is scrap it as Mr. Lekstrom suggested, and have an honest discussion with the people of this province on taxation.”

Macdonald is not impressed with the message that the government bungled selling the tax to people.

“They off miscommunication as an excuse, that this is some kind of communication failure. People know the impact of the tax. They don’t need it explained to them. It’s not a communication problem. People know that the BC Liberals were asked about the HST and said they weren’t interested and after the election they went ahead and did it.

“People are not confused about the HST. This goes far deeper than a communication problem.”