From bclocalnews.com

By Jeff Nagel

Published September 18, 2009

Thousands of B.C. residents joined forces Saturday to rail against the planned Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and crank up the pressure on the provincial government to abandon it.

A noon-hour rally led by former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm was held outside the Vancouver Convention Centre in front of more than 3,000 raucous protesters.

"The HST is a cruel tax," said Vander Zalm. "It takes from the people, the consumers... and it's giving to the big corporations. They're the real beneficiaries.

"I know the government wants to drag this out. There's nothing they'd like better than to have you the people to forget what's happening with the HST. We're gonna keep reminding them."

Speakers at the rally included representatives for students, seniors and businesses, as well as Delta-South MLA Vicki Huntington and NDP leader Carole James, who said the Liberals thought they could sneak in the tax over the summer.

"All of you here today are reminding the B.C. Liberals that the public is saying no to the HST," James said.

(. . .)

Finance minister Colin Hansen, appearing at a business luncheon Friday in Surrey, continued to defend the HST as a shift that will be good for the economy.

"We have to do what's right, not necessarily what's popular," he said.

Among those not convinced are Lower Mainland home builders, who say the HST will add significantly to the cost of a new home as well as home renovations, potentially increasing the renovation activity done under the table.

B.C. will receive a $1.6-billion grant from the federal government to help with the transition to the HST – money that will help the province deal contain large projected deficits over the next few years.

The province has exempted home heating bills from the HST.

For the full article and related video see bclocalnews story here