HST sales job fell short, B.C. premier admits

Premier Gordon Campbell has told his supporters it's no surprise British Columbians loathe the harmonized sales tax and said he's willing to take the blame for the growing opposition.

MLAs and Liberal Party members gave Campbell a rock star's welcome at a $350-a-plate dinner on Thursday night in Vancouver, but even Campbell openly admitted his leadership is facing some serious challenges.

"Well there are ups and downs in this business ... there have been quite a few downs for my popularity lately," said Campbell.

In his speech to the 1,500 party supporters, Campbell said he knew the combined sales tax would not be a "political home run" when it was announced last July.

More than half a million voters across the province have since signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of the HST, which is slated to roll out on July 1.

The petition organizers are alsotalking about organizing a newrecall campaign to remove Liberal MLAs if they don't repeal the tax.

Failed sales job

Campbell attributed the opposition tothe party'sfailure to sell the benefits of the tax to British Columbians.

"I amthe first to admit that we have not done a very good job at that and there could be all sorts of reasons why, but it's not relevant. What's relevant is we have not done a particularly good job," he said.

He also dismissed the idea that he was secretly planning to bring in the HST before the May 2009 election.

"For those people who think we had this planned all along, I mean, can you really imagine a worse way of communicating the benefits of HST than we've managed to provide you over the past ten months," Campbell told the crowd.

MLA Mary McNeil from Vancouver-False Creek said she believes the public will eventually come around.

"Wait and see what happens, July 1 is coming, I think there's a lot of misinformation out there and that's scary for folks," said McNeil.

But some at the dinner were speaking bluntly about the government's problems, includingHarry Peterson, who attended the fundraiser and said the HST is just the tip of the iceberg for the party.

"Problems with ongoing trials, obviously with Virk and what have you, and as long as they are basically self-imploding, they've got some work to do," said Peterson, referring to the corruption trial of three former B.C. government aides.

The premier, however, stuck to his usual script, saying he wants to do what's right for the province, rather than what's popular.