It seems the B.C. NDP have taken a page out of James Carville’s campaign playbook and decided to ooze the NDP platform out. They have said their platform in its entirety will be released by election day (May 14, 2013).
The glimpses we have seen of their platform offer no specifics or details. The NDP have stated in their platform that they would slash raw log exports but don’t say how. They say they want to “re-balance” the apprenticeship program and increase skills training, but don’t offer any specifics as to how they would go about doing that other than saying they would spend 40 million dollars on it. Two weeks ago, the NDP presented a fiscal plan without a bottom plan.
If the NDP is serious about winning the election and forming government, they must stop playing ‘hide and seek’ with the platform and come clean. British Columbians deserve to know what exactly they are buying before the May 14 election because, after all, it is their money the NDP is promising to spend and tax. For a leader and a party that promises to be more transparent and “change for the better one practical step at a time,” hiding their platform and shying away from a debate with Christy Clark does not seem to fit with their slogan. If they truly believed their plan was practical change for the better, not only would their leader jump at the opportunity to debate it but it would be released in its entirety at once.
The people of British Columbia must judge for themselves if the policies presented by the NDP so far are, in actuality, changes for the better. A look at some of those policies, however, makes you feel like you have just met the ghost of policies past. For instance, on forestry, the NDP have pledged to bring back the Jobs Protection Commissioner, which was originally created in the 1990s and tasked with forcing the government to intervene in the Human Resources departments of mills – in other words ‘soft nationalization’ of the forestry industry. The NDP have also hinted towards bringing B.C. Ferries back under the control of the government, which would be one impractical ferry ride back to the days of long lineups at the terminal and inefficient ferries or, as the NDP called them, “Fast Ferries.”
As the election progresses, the differences between the B.C. Liberals and the NDP become clearer. The B.C. Liberals stand for a free enterprise government that would allow the private sector to realize its full potential and create jobs, whereas the NDP pledge to recycle the policies of the 1990s one impractical step at a time.
Written by a B.C. Liberal contributor to Vancity Buzz.
Image: BC NDP
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