There is no doubt how the voters of Columbia River Revelstoke felt about the HST, as the riding was in the top ten list of areas that rejected the tax most emphatically. Columbia River Revelstoke residents voted 66.1 per cent in favor of tossing the tax.

Local reactions are mixed. NDP MLA Norm Macdonald is very pleased with the referendum results, saying they are a clear message to governments that they must keep their word.

Kimberley Mayor Jim Ogilvie says he thinks it just means for work for the City's finance people and probably will cost the City some money.

"I have consistently heard from the business people of Kimberley about the challenges of the HST," Macdonald said. "I think there are two issues. First the democratic issue. Clearly people were outraged at how the HST was introduced and a group of individuals did an incredible amount of work in the past two years to make the referendum happen. The other part is that people recognize that in the past 10 years there has been a tremendous shift in taxes. This was a $2 billion shift from corporations onto individuals and small businesses."

Ogilvie says that from the City's standpoint, it means more paperwork - two sets of books for PST and GST, instead of one for HST.

"There will be no savings," he said. "Because we get the HST back, just like the GST. We do not get the PST back. It will be more work and more costly all around, I think."

Nevertheless, Macdonald says, the people have spoken. They were not swayed by government warnings of economic failure or other dire consequences.

"First of all any suggestion that people didn't understand the tax -that was not my experience. People understood and took the time to articulate their difficulties with it. And the whole idea that we will collapse is ridiculous. We have 60 years of the PST and we had some pretty good years."

What it came down to, he says, is that people didn't believe the government and let them know it.

"There was a tremendous difference in resources. The No side had $7 million from the government and an estimated $15 to $20 million from corporations. The Yes side had $250,000. That's an example of people being able to see clearly what they wanted."

As for a fall election, which most pundits speculate is now unlikely, Macdonald agreed.

"People don't want an election. They want the government to get to work. I've had six years of experience as an MLA and the last two years have offered no sense the government is functioning in competent way."