Everyone... but the People ― How Everyday Taxpayers Overcame Vancouver's Elite and Defeated the Translink Tax

How a tiny grassroots campaign, with no money, behind the polls won an upset victory against the establishment who outspent them 175 to 1. The elites thought they had it all in their campaign to impose Canada’s first municipal sales tax on the people of Metro Vancouver. A $7 million, taxpayer-funded war chest. More than 150 organizations endorsing the plan. Virtually every mayor, councillor and provincial politician on their side. Business groups, unions, environmentalists, and academics, all grinding the public to accept the sales tax and funnel $250 million more a year to TransLink, the bloated regional transit bureaucracy famous for wasting money. On the other side stood the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, with less than $40,000, and its clever, populist No TransLink Tax campaign. Led by Jordan Bateman and Hamish Marshall, the NO campaign hijacked the elites’ campaign strategy, pushed the professional political class off message, and equipped thousands of supporters with the facts about TransLink and the tax. It turns out the elites had Everyone… But the People. A vital book for political campaigners, advocates, or anyone who wants to understand how to win.