Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm says his grassroots campaign to kill the harmonized sales tax marks the re-birth of democracy in a province that has been governed by a series of “dictators” — himself included.

In a barnstorming swing through Victoria Thursday to raise support for his axe-the-tax petition, Vander Zalm also made controversial comments about the Maritimes, saying they supported the HST because they’re used to getting handouts from Ottawa.

“They’re great folks and it’s a wonderful place,” he said. “But because of no manufacturing and few resource, they’ve long been dependent on getting a cheque sent to them by Ottawa on a regular basis.

“So they’re used to that sort of thing. So when Ottawa came to the Maritimes and said, ‘We want you to adopt the HST,’ the Maritimes said, ‘When?’”

The former Social Credit premier said the “silver lining” of the HST is that it’s uniting people in opposition across B.C., regardless of political affiliation.

“It’s also about the process,” he told about 300 cheering supporters at the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort Thursday night. “It’s about democracy. We have an opportunity in this province — like we’ve never seen elsewhere in Canada — to really show how it is democracy must work.

“And we’ve not had democracy. I don’t recall ever seeing democracy in this province, or any other province or the country. We always elect a dictator and for four years a dictator determined what was. I’ll qualify that a little bit by saying, fortunately, for the most part we’ve elected benevolent dictators.”

Before Vander Zalm spoke, volunteers gathered names on petitions outside the ballroom. The campaign needs the support of 10 per cent of registered voters in all 85 electoral districts — 300,000 in total — before July 5 if it hopes to stop the HST.

The tax combines the five per cent goods and services tax (GST) with the seven per cent provincial sales tax (PST) to create a new 12 per cent levy. It will apply to a host of things not covered by the provincial tax, so consumers will end up paying an extra seven per cent on a range of items.

The legislature was dominated by HST debate Thursday.

Finance minister Colin Hansen even printed a page from Vander Zalm’s Fight HST website and had staff circle the errors for reporters. Some of the listed items on the website’s “HST Hit List” — such as Internet service, natural gas and car repairs — would not increase seven per cent under the HST as Vander Zalm claimed, said Hansen.

The finance minister said the government plans to mail its own information about the HST to every household in the province.

The NDP quickly jumped on those comments and questioned whether it was appropriate for the government to use public money to fight a citizen’s initiative petition that has specific spending limits under provincial election laws.

“Will the minister report to Elections B.C. how much this propaganda is going to cost before he sends it out?” NDP MLA Dawn Black asked Hansen during question period.

“We will ensure that all of the communications material is totally in compliance with the Elections Act,” answered Hansen. The mailouts will be part of normal “factual information” packages that the government distributes after every provincial budget, Hansen said.

Hansen shot back at NDP MLAs who have signed up as registered canvassers for Vander Zalm’s initiative and who, he said, are helping to spread misinformation.

Meanwhile, heavily censored documents recently released from the federal government under access to information legislation appear to show senior B.C. finance officials requested HST information from Ottawa as soon as three days after last year’s election.

The NDP said that contradicts claims Hansen made in the legislature in November that the first indications Ottawa had that B.C. was reconsidering its opposition to the HST were at a finance ministers meeting in Meech Lake at the end of May.

Hansen said it’s normal for finance staff to ask Ottawa for information on a range of issues to prepare for briefings after the election.

lkines@tc.canwest.com