Kelowna

With calls of “no HST” and “Campbell is a liar,” some 200 people marched in downtown Kelowna to show their disapproval of the Harmonized Sales Tax Saturday afternoon.

The protesters met at the Sails before marching down Bernard Avenue and into the First United Church.

People on the street between the Sails and the Church watched the procession with either supportive or confused looks on their faces. Many passing vehicles honked in support and several passersby even joined the march.

One man tossed a half-eaten sandwich into the trash so he could hold a sign handed to him by one of the protesters.

“I wish I'd had time to make my own sign,” another man was heard to say as he joined the march.

Rally organizer Matthew Reed says he is pleased with the turnout, which included Mary-Anne Graham who ran for the B.C. Conservatives against Reed in the last provincial election and Daniel Thorburn of the B.C. Re-federation Party.

“Considering how rainy it was this morning, I'm pleased with the turnout. It's the first rally so I have no complaints. We wanted to do this in an outdoor city location, but funds prohibited that, so we moved to the First United Church,” says Reed, who ran for the NDP in the last provincial election.

He says the response to the rally has been incredible.

“It's been a by-partisan approach, which is important because the government did something that is affecting all people and we are all banded our political stripes to come together and speak out. Our overall message is that this tax was brought in with deceit and lies and it is a tax shift from big business to the end consumer, which is the lower middle class consumers and this is the wrong time for such a tax shift.”

New business owner, Katrina Landles says the HST will immensely impact what she does as a business owner.

“I think they should take the HST and shove it where the sun don't shine. I'm just really proud to be a part of Kelowna and see everyone who has come together to protest this,” says Landles.

One of the speakers at the rally was Daniel Thorburn of the B.C. Re-federation Party, who says our rights as a province have been usurped by the federal government.

“It is against our constitution for the federal government to collect a direct tax. The GST was never legal, that's why they called it a temporary tax. And now we've got the HST coming up on us,” says Thorburn.

He says they want the provincial government to collect all sales taxes and income taxes.

“That way we can guarantee that all money generated stays in B.C. goes back into B.C. before anyone else gets it. That is the way the constitution was originally written and that's where we need to get back to.”

Saturday's rally was held at the same time as similar rallies across the province, including ones in Vancouver, Kamloops and Prince George.

Link: See more photos in the gallery.