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British Columbia Premier Christy Clark stops to talk to the media as she delivers lunches to campaign workers at a provincial byelection polling station in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday May 11, 2011.Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

In a last-ditch bid to save British Columbia's harmonized sales tax, Premier Christy Clark is promising to roll out a plan for consumer relief in the next two weeks.

"I am more concerned than ever that the HST adds to the financial squeeze families feel," she told a party convention Saturday. "Change is coming to the HST and it is coming before the end of the month."

Ms. Clark, who was elected leader of the BC Liberal party two months ago on a "families first" platform, would not say exactly what she proposes to change - the government has just wrapped up a consultation process that it says connected with 275,000 British Columbians.

"We are looking at a number of improvements - they will be bold, they will be smart and they will focus on the families of B.C.," she said in an election-style speech that was short on specifics. Ms. Clark wrapped up her address with a series of attacks on the opposition New Democratic Party, which she branded divisive and rigid.

It was another reminder that she has two ballots on her mind.

Introducing a new, improved HST in the coming weeks is designed to influence the outcome of a referendum on the tax that will be conducted this summer through a mail-in ballot.

A victory on the referendum would also put Ms. Clark's party on stronger footing for a provincial election as early as this fall.

By softening the hit on consumers, the premier hopes to improves her odds of winning both those contests.

A recent independent panel report concluded that to scrap the HST would blow a $3-billion hole in the government's budget in just two years. But it also concluded that the HST is costing an average family $350 each year compared to the previous tax regime.

"I looked at that, and I said, we have to fix that," Ms. Clark told reporters.

But there are limits to what British Columbia can do - Ms. Clark said Ottawa has shown little interest in amending the terms of the deal it signed with the province in 2009. The first window for major changes, under that deal, would be in July 2012. "The federal government has not had a big appetite to try and address the HST," she said. "The fixes we want to bring to the HST, to lighten the load for families, will be entirely within provincial jurisdiction."

BC NDP leader Adrian Dix said the only fix for the HST is to scrap it. "The Liberal party is out of ideas and out of gas," he said in an interview. "They think British Columbians can be fooled again and they are wrong."

Liberal party members, at a townhall-style meeting just before Ms. Clark's address, offered other ideas however. They urged her to drop the tax rate or at least add more exemptions for things such as bicycles and low-cost restaurant meals.

Ms. Clark, who just months ago had written off the HST because of the huge public backlash, told reporters she now thinks the HST might survive the referendum if the government can reduce the burden it places on average consumers.

The referendum will ask British Columbians if they want to abolish the HST and go back to the former system of a provincial sales tax plus the federal Goods and Services Tax.

Members of the BC Liberal party were meeting for the first time since the party's leadership convention in February where Ms. Clark replaced former leader Gordon Campbell, who resigned over the anti-HST backlash.

Ms. Clark, who just won a by-election on Wednesday so that she can take a seat in the legislature, launched the party's election readiness team led by energy minister Rich Coleman and Sharon White, a federal Conservative. Ms. Clark also said two recently-retired Tory cabinet ministers, Jay Hill and Stockwell Day, will play a role in getting the BC Liberals ready for the next election.

Under provincial law, the next election should be held in the spring of 2013 but Ms. Clark has signaled she wants to head to the polls much sooner to win a mandate of her own. However she said Saturday the party still has some rebuilding to do to prepare for the next general election.

"We have a long way to go to rebuild people's trust, we have a long way to go to rebuild this party," she said. "I don't think we're ready yet." The premier repeated that she would not go to the polls until after the HST referendum, which is expected to be tallied in August.

However the party is in good financial shape for waging a campaign, the delegates heard. It has raised more than $9-million in the past year, eliminating its debts from the 2009 election and leaving it with $4.3-million in the bank.

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