More of the same from the NDP

Can someone please give Carole James a nudge, her record is skipping again! I don't know why I do this to myself (OK I do) but the other day I decided to spend some time learning more about our provinces official opposition, so I spent about an hour visiting the BC NDP home site and the site of the official opposition.

I'm pretty sure that I was there less than 10 minutes before my eyes started bleeding and I became short of breath. I needed water, badly! I want to call my venture into NDP territory research, at least that's how it was intended but unfortunately this would imply that I learned something useful from it. In fact all that I may have learned I knew already.

That Carole James and the NDP don't really like Premier Campbell and the BC Liberals is pretty obvious and, to be fair I guess it comes with the job. The problem that I found is that the NDP don't really seem to bring anything tangible to any of the arguments that they try to present. Even the message is the same, regurgitated from one issue to the next, "Gordon Campbell can't be trusted!" What is this, grade 9?

Lets look at health care, the one issue that the NDP keep trying to claim as their own. On their home site the NDP (correctly) observe that Gordon Campbell is promising to listen to our (British Columbian's) ideas on health care. (Presumable referring to the government Conversation on Health). In true NDP fashion they take it that one extra step by saying "Why should we believe him this time?"

Hmmm...

Well to begin with I guess we can look at the amount of money that the BC Liberals have thrown at health care since inheriting a sinking ship in 2001. Most recently $9.5 million announced for First Nations health initiatives. Fact is Gordon Campbell has increased health care spending by $3.8 billion since 2001, doubled doctors training spaces, increased training for nurses, eliminated MSP premiums and reduced prescription costs for nearly 300 000 low income British Columbian's, to name only a few. I know why the NDP shouldn't trust the government when it comes to health care.

Instead of encouraging people to take part in the Conversation on Health and bring meaningful dialogue and possible solutions to fix an ailing system to the table, the NDP choose to focus on looming shortages of health care professionals and place blame for this problem squarely on the shoulders of the premier. Here's a news flash Carole! Labour shortages are an increasing reality in all sectors in this province and it has everything to do with an aging population and, thanks to this government, a hot economy. Within the next few years BC and Alberta combined will realize a shortage of up to 350 000 skilled and unskilled laborers, who will you blame for that?

Next comes the challenges faced by lower income British Columbian's. Carole James, the NDP and the BC Federation of Labour have all jumped on the minimum wage band-wagon. According to them the "BC Liberals don't care about our lowest paid workers." Don't care? Seems to me that not so long ago the Liberals introduced a 10% tax cut specifically aimed at helping these people, a tax cut opposed by Jim Sinclair and the BC Fed. Gordon Campbell also increased the maximum income level for rental assistance to $28 000 and increased monthly shelter allowances and basic rates for single employable people by $50 each. This was the first increase of its kind since 1992.

Then we come to a personal favorite of mine, the environment.

So far, the BC Liberal government has contributed more than $500 million towards the development of greener communities. During its first term in office our government reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 24%, the same amount that emissions increased under the previous NDP government. Carole James says that "Gordon Campbell has failed on climate change" yet he is behind what is arguably the most aggressive plan at reducing carbon emissions in North America. Carole James hasn't even managed to reduce her own vehicle emissions.

I love this one!

"Gordon Campbell can't be trusted to deal with growing homelessness in our streets."

Homelessness due to things like mental illness, drug addiction, and all other contributing factors combined represents a very serious challenge to all communities throughout the province. Those of us in Vancouver-Hastings are patently aware of the reality of this problem and despite what the NDP would have us believe, its a problem that has been growing steadily since the early 90's. The problem of homelessness has been passed from government to government and until now, none have done much to solve it. During their turn at the wheel, the NDP acknowledged the challenge of homelessness and admitted that they didn't really know what to do about it.

Under Gordon Campbell, the BC Liberals have realized the problem of the homeless. They've stood up and taken responsibility for solving the problem and they've put their money where their mouths are. Recently to the tune of some $80 million and despite what the likes of the NDP and the Anti-Poverty Committee say, this is a significant first step and to quote the premier, "This is not the end."

At the beginning of this post I said that I didn't learn anything from this exercise but that's not entirely true. A couple of things did emerge after an hour or so in NDP web space. First, our official opposition is very heavy on criticism yet extremely light with useful suggestions. The NDP, for lack of any tangible argument cling to an over-used, now stale "can't be trusted" angle that doesn't allow for any intelligent debate on any of the important issues. Its like George Bush saying the the United States is "fighting evil" or worse, like trying to reason with your three year old who doesn't want to eat his/her vegetables.

Second, all it takes is a little digging (and a little common sense) to learn that while some of the challenges now facing our province did in fact become more difficult within the last 7 years, none of them were actually created during this time. Many of these challenges of been growing for decades but then does anyone really believe that a troubled health care system, global warming or the plight of the homeless magically appeared in 2001 with the changing of government? The NDP does. The reality is however, that the NDP was very aware of these problems while in government but they didn't have any money to do anything about them.

Which brings me to my final observation. The BC Liberals have turned our province around. We have money, the government is aware of the issues and they are taking all of the right steps to try and create positive change. The problem for the NDP is, that it leaves them with nothing but a bunch of old government credit card receipts to sift through, hoping beyond hope to find something, anything that can help breath a little life into a party full of old ideas and outdated ideologies.