The trouble is that the BC Liberals have been trying to appease too many of our competing values, so much so that it has left the cupboard, to paraphrase Colin Hansen: bare. Whenever someone tries to give all the people everything they want, invariably that someone ends up in some trouble
Gordon Campbell and the Liberals subscribed to a system, however you feel about the parties politics or ideological principles, we can all agree that they followed a plan. Decentralize big government, increase opportunities for businesses to grow, and ensure that social programs are community based. This all would have been great had the Liberals lost the election to Carol James. If that had been the case, the NDP would have swooped into power right around the time the financial world's meltdown really started to have a significant impact on Federal and Provincial Governments. That would have given the Liberals a perfect opportunity to blame virtually all the province's ails (primarily its money troubles) on the NDP and their spend happy, tax heavy ways. They would have been a fantastic opposition, and I would almost guarantee they would have come out of the next four years with another Liberal majority, free and clear of all the financial and social misery that British Columbians would have ascribed to the previous NDP government. Yes this all would have been lovely, had they lost. Unfortunately for Mr. Campbell and his party, they won.
They won just in time to see all their policies pay off. Health authorities clamoring for more money, same with Translink. Up to the point of the financial crisis, the government had done a good job of handing of the governing to others and Translink and the Health Authorities are good examples of this. By creating these entities, the government could provide funding to them and abdicate their responsibility as to how that money is spent. We heard about it all the time on the news, the appropriate minister would come out and state: "the government has provided X millions of dollars, perhaps you should speak to the head of the authority to see where they spent the money." Perfection, a wonderful political move, in that the government was able to remove themselves from the debate. If people were concerned with the closing of healthcare facilities or the increase in their transit rates, they could simply goto the appropriate authority and let them know. Not (you see) the government's issue.
Unfortunately for the BC Liberals, the world changed around them. After the financial crisis in the summer/fall of 2008, governments around the world began shoveling money out the door to prevent a "great depression." The motto of even the most financially conservative, business friendly, free market governments was "spend! Spend Now!" As a result British Columbians were inundated with constant talk of government bail outs and government job creation plans. The BC Liberals had gotten out of that business. They had bet the farm on the private sector being the panacea to all the ails of the world. P3's (private public partnership) was the language of the Liberals, unfortunately in this new economic reality, there is no Private P. Leaving the Public to foot a great many bills.
In BC, people began losing their jobs. The Real Estate market began to tank. People had bought into developments that were not being built, or if they were built, people couldn't afford to live there. Things began to slip and so British Columbians began to ask, what is my government doing for me aside from the Olympics? Where is my bail out? The Liberals at this point are at best, slow to answer, at worst scrambling for a way out. The introduction of the HST, (and the billions of dollars from Ottawa as a gift for implementing it here) and the announcements of cuts to various programs is the immediate plan. Their long term plan seems to be: wait it out, this too shall pass. Which I am not sure is the best idea. They are hoping that we forget this last year and are betting that the next three are going to be fruitful and prosperous. For their sake I hope so.
Until then I suppose I have no choice, HST is coming and I will have to pay more. That's all that I or any average BC'er hears. Sure Minister Hansen, has charts and graphs and can explain how in the long run I win, but I am not sure how that translates for me.....at the cash register... paying more. Other than that money is headed to cover off the debts left behind from failed businesses who are no longer able to afford to the be the other "P" in the P3 equation.
So as I said I'm not a hater of the HST to be honest I would consider myself somewhat of an advocate....IF
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