After 18 months, the campaign to recall Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett was killed by organizers yesterday. Campaign organizer Eric Freeston says his group is “very disappointed” it had to call off the recall on Feb. 15. “It’s become abundantly clear to us the B.C. Liberal strategy of waiting out the people on the issue of the HST [Harmonized Sales Tax] has worked.” Voters in the province are satisfied with going to a referendum now that they know one is coming, he explains. Barnett says she is pleased and hopes to move forward to the referendum issue with her constituents and engage in some “good” dialogue. “I will just keep working as hard as I have been for my constituents.” After the long stretch of continually being threatened with recall, she says the word of its final breath hasn’t sunk in yet. A recall is dangerous and costly thing that can be abused, Barnett adds. “The recall [legislation] was put there for a reason, and this wasn’t the reason.” Freeston says that despite its dismay at the failed recall, his campaign group was lucky to have gotten most of what it wanted, including holding Barnett to account “for her own broken political promises.” “We are pleased with the accomplishments that we have made during our campaign over the last year-and-a-half. “We’ve been able to be part of B.C.’s political history and we’ve forced out a premier who lied to us, and who implemented a tax shift without a mandate to do so.”
