“Politics is a blood sport in B.C.” I can't remember who said it first, but truer words were never spoken. And if you think you've seen blood on the floor in this province in the past, as the old cliché goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Don't be led astray by the curve ball fired by acting B.C. Chief Political Officer Craig James Wednesday. Refusing to forward the anti-HST petition and its 706,000 names to the Legislature is strictly a sideshow. The Mother of All Battles begins Nov. 15 with the “total recall campaign” as Bill Vander Zalm puts it.

And when “the Zalm” speaks only the ignorant in this province don't listen.

There are those who regard Vander Zalm as a bit of a flake – a 1,000 watt smile – and nothing else. And no one, even his most ardent supporters, would claim he has the intellect of a Pierre Trudeau, or the political cunning of a Stephan Harper. But “the Zalm” has something that Trudeau only had for part of his career and Harper never had and it's the most valuable thing in politics

Charisma, and Bill Vander Zalm has it in spades.

My Complete Oxford defines charisma as “the ability to inspire followers with devotion and enthusiasm.” Can you think of a better description for Bill Vander Zalm? In my too-many years covering politics, I've seen Vander Zalm do this first hand and I can tell you it's an awesome sight. Let me tell you about one of these.

It was the summer of 1986 at the Whistler Convention Centre. Socred Premier Bill Bennett had shocked almost everyone in the province by suddenly announcing he was stepping down and a leadership convention was on. Vander Zalm entered the race with little money, weak support in caucus and outgoing Premier Bennett and the party power brokers dead set against him, yet he won! How did he do it? Well let me tell you because I was there.

I was attending one of the “bear pit” sessions where delegates fire questions at candidates and try to trip them up on policy issues and the like. I saw this fellow from the Interior sitting next to me sporting a button that said Bill Reid, a cabinet minister and one of the second-tier candidates in the race. So I asked him why was he supporting a sure loser and he said don't worry he was supporting Vander Zalm on the second ballot. So I thought, I'm going to have some fun with this guy. I turned to him and I said incredulously; Bill Vander Zalm! He's controversial, he's confrontational and be believes in simple solutions to complex problems. How could you support him?

The guy, from somewhere in the Cariboo, turned slowly towards me and gave me the most withering stare I've ever experienced in my life, and in a voice that could be heard half-way around the room, barks out; “Well I happen to believe in simple solutions to complex problems.”

At that point there was not a single doubt in my mind about who was going to win that leadership convention.

Fast forward 30 years and you have Vander Zalm and his faithful sidekick Chris Delaney hitching up their wagon and travelling to the Interior to launch their “Fight the HST” campaign. There was almost no mention of the campaign in the supposedly all-knowing Lower Mainland press. Not a peep out of the NDP either. It was a non-issue as far as the heavy-thinkers in Lotus Land were concerned.

But from Day One, Vander Zalm and Delaney drew crowds in the hundreds in the Interior and by the time they got to Cranbrook they had thousands of signatures on petitions and in less than a month it was brutally obvious the petition campaign was going to succeed against all odds and the thoughts of the heavy thinkers.

Who was it that first said; “We the people?” The heavy thinkers, and not to mention, the special interest groups like the Council of Forest Industries, the BC Chamber of Commerce, the BC Mining Association and the like who are trying to stop the HST campaign in the courts, seem to have forgotten “the people” are part of the equation.

And they have spoken, all 706,000 of them. Any government that ignores them does so at its peril.