A Langley politician, the head of Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman’s riding association, briefly called for the resignation of Liberal finance minister Colin Hansen over the HST controversy.

Township Councillor Jordan Bateman called for the resignation of his fellow Liberal on his LangleyPolitics.com blog on Thursday morning.

By 2 p.m., the post had been removed from the site. By 3 p.m., it had been replaced by an apology to Hansen.

Bateman was writing about recent revelations that Hansen’s staff had given the minister information about the HST more than a month before the last election. Hansen has repeatedly said the issue wasn’t on his radar until just after the election.

“It certainly isn’t good news for the BC Liberals,” Bateman wrote in his original post. “And it reaffirms the thought that Minister Colin Hansen should resign. Under his ministry, the handling and implementation of the HST has been one blunder after another. There’s no way around it. And now his credibility is completely shot.”

As the president of a cabinet member’s riding association, Bateman is one of the highest profile Liberals to openly call for resignations over the HST.

But he reversed his position after his post was picked up as a major news story online Thursday. Bateman spoke to Hansen in the afternoon.

“I want to apologize to the minister for my earlier comments (in fact, I apologized to him directly on our phone call),” Bateman wrote. “They were spoken out of frustration after reading the volumes of media coverage over the past 24 hours.”