Retiree undaunted by steep odds against his petition to stop Site C dam

The man behind a petition to stop B.C.'s massive Site C dam project says he's not discouraged by the overwhelming odds against his success.

Ion Moruso says he decided to start up the petition for one simple reason.

"Well, because nobody else wants to do it," says the retiree, who lives in Duncan, B.C.

Construction of the dam was ordered to restart last December by Premier John Horgan after a review determined that cancelling Site C would lead to higher rates for BC Hydro customers than if it was built.

One in 10 petitions successful

Under B.C.'s unique Recall and Initiative Act, anyone can propose new laws as long as they get enough signatures.

• Elections BC: Recall and Initiative Petitions

Moruso's initiative petition is the 11th launched since 1995. Previous initiatives have proposed laws to change laws around policing and cannabis, end bear hunting, balance the budget, control MLAs' pensions and end school taxes.

However, only one has been successful. In 2010, the petition to stop the Harmonized Sales Tax was launched by former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm.

A massive volunteer effort ended up collecting over half a million verified signatures, leading to a referendum and ultimately the end of the tax — and then-premier Gordon Campbell's political career.

Moruso wants to stop construction of Site C because he's worried about the cost to taxpayers.

Starting July 3, he will have 90 days to convince 10 per cent of voters in every electoral riding in the province to sign on.

Elections BC has yet to announce exactly how many signatures Moruso will need, but it will be at least 315,000.

That means he'll need to gather an average of 3,500 signatures a day.

'It is difficult, but it's possible'

So far, every organization Moruso has approached about the campaign has told him they don't think it will succeed, but that has failed to discourage him. 

"You're gonna walk up to the top of a hill, and you say, 'Well, that's too difficult' — yeah, it is difficult, but it's possible, somebody did it," he says.

He hopes the campaign will spread by word of mouth and people will sign up to help him.

"Spread the word around, and have friends that will join the canvassing group, then we'll have enough people to collect signatures," he says.

Despite his enthusiasm, he remains realistic about his chances of success.

"Whether we will succeed or not is a different question, but you do it hoping that it will work."