Anti-HST campaigner quits B.C. Conservatives

One of the key organizers of British Columbia's anti-HST campaign has resigned from his senior position in the provincialConservative party to help launch a new party called B.C. First.

Chris Delaney told CBC News he decided to step down asdeputy leader of the B.C. Conservatives because he has two big problems with the party. He said it has been reluctant to come out strongly against the harmonized sales tax,and federal Conservatives like former MP Randy White and current MP John Cumminswield too much power within the organization.

"A number of people from the federal party, many of whom are close to the B.C. Liberal Party, seem to be coming into the party and taking it over," said Delaney.

"The B.C. Conservative Party is positioning itself to become the new B.C. Liberal Party, only with a different name," he said. "Everyone in B.C. knows the Liberals are finished, but rather than providing an agenda for real change, the Conservatives think a fresh coat of paint on a soiled Liberal brand is the way to power."

The B.C. First Party was founded this summer by members of the Fight HST campaign.

Delaney's move comes as polls show the Conservatives inching up in support at the expense of the governingLiberals, who brought in the unpopular HST.

Defection no surprise

As co-leader of the Fight HST campaign with formerpremier Bill Vander Zalm, Delaney has recently developed a high profile politically in B.C. But he has a long history in provincialpolitics, first with B.C. Reform, then as leader of the Unity Party, and then in the B.C. Conservative Party.

But he has never won a seat for an elected office, and B.C. Conservative president Wayne McGrath said he wasn't surprised Delaney defected.

"[He has] a long history of leaving political parties, forming new political parties, usually with a very narrow agenda to the party, so again this is sort of history repeating itself," said McGrath.

It has been decades since the B.C. Conservatives have elected a member to the legislature, but McGrath says it's Delaney's new party, B.C. First, that is on the fringe of politics. McGrath also points out that the B.C. Conservative Party is against the HST.