The shadow of Gordon Campbell looms over B.C. Liberal victory
The B.C. Liberal election victory has shocked the pundits after polls had consistently put the NDP ahead throughout the campaign.
But Christy Clark's stunning comeback comes with a cloud overhead.
She's promised a strong economy and a secure tomorrow.
But former premier Gordon Campbell has left the province with enormous off-book liabilities as a result of his public-private partnerships.
Gabriola Island economist Erik Anderson pointed out in an April 30 letter to all four party leaders that “the disclosed liabilities of the province a year ago, according to government’s own figures, were $70 billion.”
Here’s the kicker in Anderson’s letter: “In addition, the Auditor General confirmed that as of a year ago BC’s ‘Contingencies and Contractual Obligations’ totaled another $96.374 billion. By the time the dust settles, the fiscal year just ended (2012/13) will likely have the provincial total liabilities closing in on $200 billion. The bulk of the nearly $100 billion of contractual obligations come from the IPP contracts to which Hydro has committed us.”
Anderson noted that the Site C dam, which Campbell promoted, represents another $8 billion in debt.
Campbell’s decision to overpay private producers for electricity, waste hundreds of millions on a stadium roof and an unnecessary convention centre, and starve the government of revenues by reckless personal- and corporate-income tax cuts has left a generation of taxpayers to pick up the pieces.
It’s a cruel legacy to the children whom he so often professed to care so deeply about.
He and his neoliberal minions in cabinet have left the cupboard less than bare for Clark, much as George W. Bush did to Barack Obama in 2008.
She will face years of cleaning up the fiscal mess.
And Clark would wind up being painted as a loser in the long run if voters end up souring on her leadership because of the financial situation.
It's hardly a recipe for a debt-free B.C. as she promised.
Meanwhile, Campbell will be sipping champagne at the High Commission to the United Kingdon in London, courtesy of the Canadian taxpayers.
Comments
12 Comments
jeff
May 14, 2013 at 10:12pm
where's the nearest bridge?
RUK
May 14, 2013 at 10:49pm
I don't normally work blue, but don't you think the headline of tomorrow's papers should be:
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
!@#$%^&!!!
May 14, 2013 at 10:51pm
I guess when twenty percent of the people find themselves living under a bridge, the people will realize the party that stole everything that wasn't bolted to the ground was only working for the 1%.
Gordo must be laughing now.
.
May 14, 2013 at 11:15pm
what. the. fuck.
what the hell?!
May 14, 2013 at 11:26pm
How Fucking-Un-Believable.
is it out of your system yet Charlie?
May 15, 2013 at 6:43am
400 ppm, Charlie, %50 turn-out, at least half the people know that elections are meaningless. How about talking about something relevant, a real alternative newspaper
“In 2012, we saw twice as many people being displaced by natural disasters as compared to the year before. So that was 32.4 million who were newly displaced in 2012."
http://www.voanews.com/content/disasters-displaced-13mat13/1659882.html
A measure of the worsening situation is the food price index. This has spikes when the price of oil rises, but the underlying value has been rising steadily since 2006. Today, the index is slightly more than the critical price level above which food riots are liable to break out – an example having been the Arab Spring. Largely as a result of the crop failures this year, the FAO forecast that the index will rise higher in 2013 and higher again in 2014. If the trend in weather extremes continues, then these figures could prove optimistic. With a billion people on the edge of starvation today, we could see 2 billion by this time next year.
http://www.ameg.me/index.php/our-blog
Christie
May 15, 2013 at 8:48am
Ha ha losers, get used to it. Communism is dead.
bobo
May 15, 2013 at 1:23pm
The ink is hardly dry on the election results, and here comes the straight with their negativity. Oh wait, it's Charlie Smith. No surprise there. Whatever happened to working together for the good of all??? You guys are operating just like the tea party in the usa.
CC did it
May 15, 2013 at 2:05pm
My, no wonder the Liberals got in if the left think & talk the way the posters here do!
Disbelief
May 15, 2013 at 7:05pm
Apparently it's okay for British Columbians to get screwed over, lied to, scammed, cheated, emabarassed and scandaled time and time again. We'll still vote for the ones that did it to us. Christy must have laughed herself to sleep after the election.
Whoops, now she has to figure out a way to spin the promises she's made for a fantasy "balanced" budget. No problem, just sell off more natural resources for less than market value, raise taxes and continue to cut services paid for by the taxes. Get ready folks, it's gong to be quite a ride. In 100 years we'll have paid for Expo, the stadium roof and the useless conference centre. As long as her rich "friends" have taxpayer-funded places to party it's all good.
I am in such disbelief that the citizens of BC could be so stupid that I am left wondering if CC got re-elected the same way George Bush did by manipulating the voting process. Nothing would shock me anymore about our current political party-ers.