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FightHST almost ready for Lake

Kamloops-North Thompson residents might want to get ready for a knock on the door.

Kamloops-North Thompson residents might want to get ready for a knock on the door.

But these won’t be Girl Guides selling cookies.

Instead, the knocks will come from a group trying recall Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake over dissatisfaction with the harmonized sales tax.

Chad Moats, FightHST organizer for Kamloops-North Thompson, said his group is just about ready to launch its recall campaign.

He said the local group is setting up an office to headquarter the task.

When the riding was selected by FightHST to be the second in line for a recall campaign, the effort was expected to begin right after New Year’s.

The slight delay, Moats said, is due to a large financial backer deciding to pull out at the last minute.

The group has been fundraising to make up for the shortfall.

Moats said the campaign needs about $4,000 to get going and, so far, it has about 90 per cent of the funds already.

The Kamloops-North Thompson campaign will see organizers have 60 days to collect signatures from 40 per cent of the registered voters in the riding.

Moats said there are nearly 300 canvassers ready to take part.

Shortly after former NDP Leader Carole James announced she was stepping down as leader and a leadership race was to follow, Moats expressed concern the move might hurt the recall campaign.

He suggested an NDP leadership contest in the early spring could drain some of the party’s recall canvassers away from the task of gathering signatures for the campaign.

The concern is some of the canvassers could switch their focus from recall to rebuilding the NDP.

Though the problem could still be a possibility, Moats said none of the volunteers in his list have approached him looking to get out.

As for the campaign, there will be a central signing location in Kamloops, still to be determined, that will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“I’m pretty confident we’ll get close, if not passed, the needed mark,” Moats said.