Fight HST organizers are preparing to unveil details of their plan to target Liberal MLAs for recall, says group spokesperson Chris Delaney.

Delaney said the goal is not to topple the government, but to pressure the Liberals to cancel the unpopular 12-percent tax.

“We’ll probably do three [MLAs] initially ”¦ and then add one every month after that. Exactly which ones, that’ll be revealed next week,” Delaney told the Straight today (September 14) by phone.

Former premier Bill Vander Zalm’s Fight HST camp has already revealed a “hit list” of 24 Liberal MLAs, including four from Metro Vancouver: Kash Heed (Vancouver-Fraserview), Gordon Hogg (Surrey-White Rock), Richard Lee (Burnaby North), and Minister of Children and Family Development Mary Polack (Langley).

The talk of recalls comes after a legislative committee ruled the future of the anti-HST petition should be decided through a non-binding, provincewide initiative vote in September 2011.

During deliberations, the committee rejected an option to instead send the petition and associated HST-extinguishment draft bill to the legislature for consideration.

Premier Gordon Campbell has reportedly said he will comply if more than half of the citizens who cast ballots in the initiative vote call for an end to the tax.

But the Fight HST group says they won’t take Campbell at his word alone and don't believe he will take steps to formalize a binding referendum on the HST. The group has also called for the vote to be held in 2010.

“We sort of took a day here to see what the premier was talking about because, had it been real, a legitimate offer, then we could cancel recall,” Delaney said.

“But it looks like it’s again another stall tactic, another trick rather than a legitimate, genuine desire to see the public will be facilitated. The only thing we can do now is go into recall.”

Delaney described the initiative vote as “nothing more than a large public opinion poll”.

Under the legislation that governs the recall process in B.C., more than 40 percent of valid voters in each targeted riding must sign a petition in order to unseat their MLA.

No recall campaigns can be launched until 18 months after the most recent general election, which in this case was held in May 2009. Delaney said that means the recalls could start in November.