The True Decade of Decline

Back in the mid to late '90s, Gordon Campbell was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and after losing the 1996 election against Glen Clark, Campbell began to describe the current NDP governments decade in power, as the Decade of Decline. After eight years in office, many British Columbians will now tell you that this is the true "decade of decline". Campbell mostly cited the fiscal policy of Glen Clark and Ujjal Dosanjh, which was usually plagued with budget deficits, which the Liberals would call "fudge-it budgets".

The first term of Gordon Campbell as Premier started off well, with tax cuts applied for all citizens, but with larger ones for businesses. He completed these actions on his second day in office, and yet he had already developed a $1,000,000,000 deficit. Yes, there are nine zeros in that figure by the way. Anyways, knowing that he could not admit this, as he had criticized the previous government consistently for large deficits, Gordon Campbell kept this little number quite for the time being. Soon, he established fiscal austerity, and passed a law banning any budget from being passed with a deficit. To counter the large deficit, Campbell set out to sell the Fast Cat Ferries which had been built for half a billion for nineteen million. E&N Rail would also be sold off, breaking an election promise in the 2001 campaign, and subsequently causing the RCMP to raid the Legislature in 2003.

Post-secondary tuition fee caps were eliminated, allowing rates to soar for students entering college or university, along with the announcement that education is an essential service, restricting teacher's ability to strike. A vote was conducted regarding native rights, which was viewed as a waste of taxpayers' money. Portions of our health care system would be privatized, causing jobs to be given to poorly paid immigrants. We also got the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the minimum wage was raised by $0.40 per hour, but lowered for new workers. Somewhere in between all this, Gordon was also caught driving under the influence of alcohol in Hawaii. Good times, good times.

Following his re-election in 2005, teachers across the province went on strike for two weeks, nearly causing a general strike. To avoid such potentially damaging strikes politically to the Liberals and Gordon Campbell, all union contracts were extended to 2010 to avoid any workers walking off the job during the Winter Olympics. A new tax was created, the Carbon tax, which hurt isolated communities, and nearly drove them in bankruptcy, and was eventually doubled. Gordon's Attorney General, Wally Oppal, also introduced a bill restricting every individual's ability to comment on government policy. Today, the HST is being introduced causing families to lose more money in a recession, along with massive cuts to education, health care, tourism and just about any other government service you can name.

Compare all of this to the NDP's supposed "decade of decline" with numerous environmental bills passed, the lowering of tuition fees, increases of funding to health care and education, and no new taxes, unlike the actions of our current provincial government. So ask yourselves, which record is better: the Liberals or the NDPs?