British Columbia's Provincial Sales Tax (PST) has an unusual history. In 2010, BC merged its PST with the federal GST to create the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which business groups supported for efficiency. However, public backlash over the change led to Canada's first successful citizen-initiated referendum in 2011, which rejected the HST. BC consequently returned to a separate PST system in 2013. This experience demonstrated that sales tax policy can be highly politically sensitive, and that efficiency arguments do not always win public support when people perceive taxes increasing. BC remains one of the provinces with separate PST rather than harmonized HST.