B.C. Liberal house leader Mary Polak claims the NDP continues to ride on the previous government’s economic record.
“It took 16 years of hard work to rebuild our province’s economy,” she states. Polak is still comfortable wrapping herself in the Liberals’ false narratives.
The fact is, the Liberals inherited a healthy budget surplus from the NDP, which then-premier Gordon Campbell lied about, claiming the province was an economic mess.
Today, we see the books that made the Liberals look good were cooked. Years of stealing money from ICBC and hiding losses in B.C. Hydro deferral accounts gave the false narrative of fiscal competence. The NDP inherited an actual mess, not a fabricated one.
The Liberals left the elderly, ill and poor behind with no support increase for a decade, yet still nearly tripled the debt. Public education was abandoned as former premier Christy Clark put her time and money into court battles with teachers. Allowing resource-based corporations such as Imperial Metals to monitor themselves has left environmental problems such as the cleanup of the Mount Polley mine disaster in need of big money. Let’s not even get into the blind eye turned to money-laundering in casinos.
The Liberals, as John Horgan noted during the election, just “make stuff up.” Instead of spreading more false narratives, Polak and her party should take this time in Opposition to do some reflection and maybe enter the next election with more honesty and a desire to serve British Columbians.
Ted Roberts
Sooke
