Premier Christy Clark once called the way former premier Gordon Campbell imposed the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) as “sneaky.” However, we hadn’t seen anything yet when it came to sneaky.
With close to 3.5 million ballots being mailed to voters, strategists with the B.C. Liberal Party have launched a frontal assault on democracy by employing virtually every trick to suppress voter turnout in order to increase the odds the HST will survive.
Their tactics: changing the date of the original Sept. 24 referendum to hold the vote in the lazy days of summer instead, throwing voters a curve ball question that requires them to vote Yes to say No, and then asking them to mail it in.
It’s not a coincidence that voters are rarely called to the polls in July or August. Indeed, the last time British Columbians were asked to vote in summer was on Aug. 30, 1972 when W.A.C. Bennett was defeated.
The second trick: “heads I win, tails you lose.”
Normally, when someone asks a question, the positive choice comes first, as in: “are you for it or against it?”
The HST referendum breaks this rule by making the negative option – scrapping the HST – the positive choice, as in: Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) and reinstating the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in conjunction with the GST (Goods and Services Tax)?
So, instead of voting No to the HST – as groups who oppose the HST have said with slogans such as “Vote No,” or “No to the HST” – voters who want to scrap the HST must now vote Yes.
It’s a question intended to confuse British Columbians. At the very least, the first eight words are manipulative.
The third trick in the B.C. Liberal government’s handbook: “mail it in.”
B.C. has had one mail-in referendum. Only 37 per cent of eligible voters dropped their ballot in the mailbox.
While mail-in ballots may be cost-effective, they don’t produce a higher turnout by those who normally abstain or provide a fair representation of all voting groups in a society.
Usually, it’s the higher educated who will sort through conflicting views in a referendum to make a decision.
Others are at a disadvantage when voting by mail: those who are functionally illiterate, new Canadians who may not sufficiently understand the common language, or those with little time to consider the issue.
While many may believe politicians would never manipulate voter behaviour to suppress turnout, voters can’t afford to ignore the reality that such tactics work when a government wants to foist an unpopular policy onto its citizens.
Not since United States Republican strategist Ed Rollins allegedly suppressed the turnout of black voters in the 1993 New Jersey governor’s race by paying black voters to sit at home on election day, have citizens witnessed such a blatant attempt by a government to pass not just one but a series of curve balls by its own citizens.
Don’t let political machinations disenfranchise you. After Gordon Campbell’s last campaign promise on the HST, don’t fall for Premier Clark’s pig-in-a-poke promise this time round.
Get the facts from both the Yes and No sides, and then vote for what you believe is best for B.C.
Dermod Travis is IntegrityBC’s managing director. www.integritybc.ca.
