Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall says she's “not surprised and very pleased” that BC residents have rejected the harmonized sales tax in a mail-in ballot.
Nor was she surprised by the strong anti-HST sentiment in her riding, which voted nearly 64 per cent against keeping the tax.
“I toured the constituency getting people to meet me at the mailbox, and encouraging them to vote,” she says.
“When they would meet me there, that was exactly what they were telling me: that they had voted yes to get rid of the HST. The vast majority.”
Mungall says when she went door-to-door reminding people to vote, the sentiment was largely the same.
She now hopes that the Liberals stick to the spirit of the referendum by going back to the same PST and GST system the province used to have.
As for the $1.6 billion BC will have to repay to the federal government, she says it's “debatable and questionable.”
“I think there's a lot that has to be done before we cut a cheque. We need to negotiate with the federal government,” she says.
Mungall added that while the implementation of the HST was botched, she counts the way it was repealed as a public victory.
“It shows the people can make democracy work when a government is that arrogant,” she said.
“Every British Columbian should be proud of their democratic process because we won the right to the referendum, we had our say, and we spoke loud and clear.”