Go to article index for other editions of Bob Orrick's IN RE (In the Matter of).
Bottom Line Versus Bread Line
By
Bob Orrick
In May 2001, after a decade of NDP economy-killing incompetence, the voters of British Columbia turfed the socialists in favour of a coalition of liberal-conservatives posing as Liberals. At first, the electorate was euphoric as within days the Gordon Campbell-led Liberals fulfilled an election promise and dropped the personal income tax slightly. According to the province's finance minister, the lost revenue would easily and soon be replaced by an upswing in the economy brought on by the rush of private enterprise as it clamoured to fill voids left when businesses fled the province rather than put up with the NDP's draconian labour legislation. That was then and this is now.
After the Liberals captured 77 of the 79-seat legislature, the province's two NDP survivors fought hard to retain some semblance of official opposition. It was an uphill struggle with little to suggest that the duo would be moderately successful. Strange things happen in politics and especially in wacky, wonky BC. The worm began to turn and the Liberals became a bit uncomfortable. When asked, none on the government side would admit that, but letters-to-the-editors and coffee-shop chit-chat told the truth; the people of BC, the same who had embraced the Liberals only a few months earlier were becoming antsy. Soon, antsy turned to downright hateful. So much so that recall petitions began to take root and serious campaigns to unseat sitting MLAs gathered force. As before, the government side claimed all was rosy and that the recall petitions were nothing more than a mere annoyance that would soon go away when the populace saw foreign businesses sprout here, there and everywhere. The populace did not buy the government's rhetoric. And you thought Iraq's information officer was an expert at spinning yarns; as our Southern cousins are wont to say, "You ain't seen nothing yet." And British Columbians had not; the other shoe, as it were, was about to fall.
The bloated government bureaucracy felt the sharp edge of the paring knife as the Liberals 'cut back' and 'cut down.' Predictably, there were howls of protest and much gnashing of heretofore union-protected workers' teeth. The government stood its ground and the gnashing became more a whimper and then virtual silence. In two years, the Liberals had accomplished much of their downsizing programme announced during the 2001 general election.
The recall petitions ran their course and one by one fell by the wayside as insufficient numbers were collected to force a recall. One recall effort did gather more than enough signatures to qualify but upon examination by the chief electoral officer's office, it was learned that many of the signatures were for people who did not live in the riding or had not voted in the last general provincial election. It too, was thrown out and the sitting MLA breathed a sigh of relief as she spun her own web of explanations as to why the recall had come about in the first place; and how she had been doing a splendid job and really saw no need for the people to have expended much time and money - their own - to re-fight the last election. Since that announcement, not much along positive lines has sprung from her or from her office. That, one supposes, is a spinned version of democracy. Spin something hard enough and the initial reason becomes lost in the head swivelling as nobody can keep up with the vortex. Governments, be they in Ottawa, in a provincial or territorial capital or Baghdad are past masters at the game of spin the top and smother the truth.
After two years, the Liberal government in BC has lost much of its support and projections are that were an election called today, Gordon Campbell and his gang would lose between 20 and 35 seats. The lesson Premier Lord received in New Brunswick could indeed be lost on Gordon Campbell. Lord figured he had a second term in the bag only to wake up - literally and figuratively - to learn that his vaunted majority had shrunk to two seats with recounts scheduled. Lord and his Conservatives are not out of the woods just yet. The NB message has been put before BC's Campbell by more than one editorial and more than one political columnist. The question is, "Will Campbell listen?" History suggests that his arrogance and his desire to be king might just get in the way. Recently something else got in Campbell's way, though.
One of Campbell's more idiotic announced plans is to lease the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Kamloops to a private outfit. The plan presupposes that the province receive about five hundred million dollars up front in exchange for a fifty-five year lease on the toll highway. There is no doubt that the government needs the bucks but the good citizens of the province, especially those directly affected by the proposed lease, say that Victoria, because it is desperate for revenue, has short-term gain written on the inside of its eyelids and cannot see what all others see - long-term pain. In other words, Campbell and his cabinet see only half a billion dollars dancing in their short-term-gain noggins.
If the deal goes through, motorists will continue to pay a toll - currently ten dollars one way - for fifty-five years. Add to that there is no assurance that the toll will not be increased over time. Currently, the figure of thirteen dollars is being floated as reasonable and a possible starting point.
Protestors correctly point out that tolls in place since the first stage of the highway opened in 1986 have more than paid for the expressway. The government of the day - fiscally conservative and socially amenable and without a doubt the last sensible one in BC - stated that the toll would be removed once the cost of the highway had been paid. The 'paid in full' stamp was added some years ago but successive governments have seen the toll as a cash cow and were not about to remove it. Now, the Liberals want to lease the much-used main link to the Okanagan to a private outfit in exchange for a quick fix of big bucks. Shame!
That is what about one thousand protestors claimed when they met, voluntarily, at the toll booth a week or so ago to protest the Liberals lunacy. There is no indication that Campbell listened or even cared that people are up in arms over the proposal.
The recent toll booth protest and the more recent NB election result ought to wake up Campbell and his Liberals but many in BC are not holding their breaths waiting for sense to replace stupidity in Victoria.
Prediction: After the scheduled May 2005 provincial general election, Campbell and his Liberals will do well to have more than a 10 to 12 seat majority, down from their 77 seat win of 2001. In the meantime, British Columbians suffer under a government more interested in bottom lines than in bread lines.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Advertising Information 
