Did my questions provoke Gordon Campbell's promise to small business?

I think it's  fair to say that Premier Gordon Campbell's government has not treated the Georgia Straight with the utmost respect over the years.

A few years ago, the government sent auditors into our family-owned company offices and tried to impose provincial-sales taxes on our newsprint purchases. This fee was not  levied  on big out-of-province publishers, like Canwest Global Communications Corp. The government tried to justify it by claiming that the Georgia Straight is not a newspaper, and newspapers are exempt from paying this tax.

The Georgia Straight spent more than $80,000 on legal bills to convince the government that it is indeed a newspaper. One of the province's best-known lawyers contacted the government, which did nothing. Only after we held a news conference did the Campbell government back down. The publisher never received an apology.

The premier's office also declined several  interview requests from the Georgia Straight, a family-owned business, after he was elected in 2001. But the premier regularly visited big corporate media outlets, which usually treated him with kid gloves.

So we were denied access as well. He didn't have a one-on-one conversation with a Georgia Straight journalist during his entire eight years in office. I guess that's because it's not a newspaper.

In addition, the Campbell government has had an impact on the company's revenues. The B.C. Liberal government frequently bypassed the Georgia Straight with its advertising buys.

Big campaigns like the "Best Place on Earth", the "Conversation on Health", and a recent two-page ad campaign highlighting the government's climate-change policies were placed in newspapers owned by Canwest, a  corporation with a head office in Winnipeg,  and other big media.

But they weren't placed in the Georgia Straight, which is a locally owned family business.

Two local magazines recently ceased publishing in Vancouver. I wonder if they were bypassed by the Campbell government as well,  and if this contributed to their demise.

Today, you'll see a full-page, taxpayer-financed  ad on page A5 of the Vancouver Sun, which is owned by a big out-of-province  business. It's celebrating the opening of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. You won't see that ad in the Georgia Straight.

I don't want to belabour this point and  I'm not writing these words to curry sympathy. It's just the reality of operating a family-owned business in Vancouver. I'm using our company as a microcosm to demonstrate  the bigger picture: the  Campbell government  has a record of favouring big businesses  over smaller businesses, and some of these big businesses happen  to be large campaign contributors.

We've managed quite well despite all this because we have an outstanding staff who create a product that the public wants to read. I'm not crying the blues.

By now, you might be wondering how all of this connects to the headline: "Did my questions provoke Gordon Campbell's promise to small business?"

This week, much to my surprise, the premier actually paid a visit to our office for the first time since he was elected. We had to clear the topics in advance with his press secretary, Bridgitte Anderson.

I guessed that the premier wouldn't consent to an interview if we were to ask about Patrick Kinsella, child poverty, or the lack of women with real power in his cabinet. So we offered up these two topics: transportation and small business. We were  told we would get  a half hour.

I spent the weekend thinking about how to best use that very, very, very rare opportunity to ask the premier some questions. Much to my chagrin, I was told upon his arrival that we would only get 20 minutes because the premier was running behind schedule.

I wondered at the time if this is what he told the Canwest editors when he showed up for editorial board meetings in its offices.

Despite this, we soldiered on. Reporter Matthew Burrows asked some excellent questions about the Gateway program. On Thursday (April 9), you can read the premier's responses in the printed edition of the Georgia Straight, which will be distributed across Metro Vancouver, or watch a video of the interview at Straight.com.

I  demanded answers from the premier on his treatment of small businesses. I asked about the Georgia Straight. I  inquired why ads were placed in Canwest papers but not in this locally owned family business.

I asked about his four  meetings with Dennis Skulsky, the CEO of Canwest MediaWorks, in his office during his first term, and pointed out that the premier has also met privately with Skulsky's boss, Leonard Asper. I asked what the premier discussed with Skulsky in his office.

At one point, I raised the fact that Canwest contributed $50,000 to the B.C. Liberals in 2005--at which point the press secretary interrupted and claimed I was sandbagging the premier.

To the premier's credit, he patiently answered all of my questions. We'll bring you that later in the campaign.

I also asked him why his government never compensated merchants on Cambie Street. I sought answers about what types of businesses will have to pay a new  convention-centre tax, which his government approved in 2004.

My last question in this segment concerned why the premier won't level the playing field for small business by imposing limits on campaign contributions by big unions and big business. When the story appears, we'll post the video on our site.

And I also asked why he hasn't made B.C. a leader in the taxation of small businesses.

I relied on a recent report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which I wrote about on this site a few days ago. It showed that B.C. was in the middle of the pack, and fared particularly poorly on sales and excise taxes.

The premier acknowledged that he read my story, but he hadn't read the report.

The next day, his government issued a short news release saying B.C.'s small-business tax will be the lowest in Canada by 2012.

Vancouver Sun columnist Don Cayo wrote this morning that the announcement was not only "bereft of details", but "it seemed to catch the finance department flat-footed".

In other words, it was a back-of-the-envelope announcement probably issued as a defence against a coming feature story in the Georgia Straight, which might expose how the premier actually favours big business over small business. It's typical of what we've come to expect from  our  one-man government.

Small-business owners across the province are probably hoping that this latest  promise  on taxation--which was apparently done with no bureaucratic input--carries more weight than the premier's previous promise to create the most open and accountable government in Canada.

I'm not even going to get into his promise not to sell B.C. Rail. Otherwise, this post will never end.