A few weeks ago, Christy Clark said she didn't want to be premier of British Columbia but the feisty former deputy premier-turned-radio talk show host has changed her mind.

Before a noisy crowd of about 250 supporters in Vancouver on Wednesday, Clark announced that she will enter the B.C. Liberal leadership contest to replace outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell.

She admitted that her first instinct on taking on the job was "no."

"The more I thought about it, the more I realized that any job worth doing is really hard to do," she said. "I decided that I couldn't turn away from public service because I thought it was hard."

While Clark, 45, is the only government outsider to enter the race, she's no stranger to politics.

She was elected as an MLA in 1996, and appointed deputy premier and minister of education after the Liberals won the election in 2001.

Clark plans to run on a four-point platform, including that a free vote be held in the legislature on the controversial harmonized sales tax, which she said likely wouldn't pass.

"That issue...has shaken public confidence in government and in our party, and like many other British Columbians I feel the process was fatally flawed from the outset," Clark told reporters.

She said the public wants the issue dealt with quickly and the indecision and stalling is only slowing down the economy.

It was the government's disastrous unveiling of the HST that forced Campbell to announce his departure. A relentless campaign against the tax led the government to announce a referendum next year, a referendum that other leadership candidates have said they would move up. But none of the other candidates -- former cabinet ministers Moira Stilwell, George Abbott, Kevin Falcon and Mike de Jong -- have suggested a free vote.

Neither Falcon nor Abbott agreed with the idea, saying the people want a say on the tax.

"I think it would be wrong to take away from the people of British Columbia the opportunity to definitely decide whether we are going to have the HST or the PST," said Abbott.

Clark said her other goals as leader would include a family-first agenda, renewed leadership and defeating the NDP.

While his unpopularity and the issue of the HST forced Campbell to quit, Clark praised her former boss.

"Politics is a very, very tough business. I know that, but almost no one knows that as well as he does," she said of Campbell. "He deserves our gratitude to the incredible effort that he's put in."

Former MLA Lorne Mayencourt was in the crowd of supporters and said he's always had support from Clark, and he wanted to support her now.

"The anti-bullying initiative that she took on in 2002 was something that was extremely important to me as a gay man," he said.

Clark in on leave from her radio talk show job at Vancouver radio station CKNW.

She left politics in 2005 saying she wanted to spend more time with her family, including her now nine-year-old son. She was asked in a radio interview how she could she put her own family first when she was going into a 24-hour a day job?

It doesn't have to be a 24-hour a day job, she responded, adding that even Prime Minister Stephen Harper goes home for dinner most nights. Falcon also has a young family.

Clark took a stab at municipal politics in 2005 when she ran unsuccessfully against Sam Sullivan for Vancouver's Non-Partisan Association mayoral nomination.

Liberals will choose a new leader at a convention on Feb. 26, 2011.