Years ago, I left public life after serving as premier for almost a decade. I served as the leader of the Opposition for seven years before that.
I decided to share some thoughts before the Oct. 19 election because, to put it mildly, I am worried about where B.C. is headed.
Everyone seeking to serve as an elected official is doing so to make things better for you, not for themselves. But over the past few years, B.C. has been going downhill.
Something is seriously wrong. You are working harder but not getting further ahead. And B.C. is falling behind.
Massive across-the-board tax increases have not made things better; they have made them more costly. The government cannot say it cares about your cost of living when it has relentlessly increased it through higher taxes.
The government has relentlessly increased taxes on your homes, your cars, your gas, your hydro, your health, your parking and even your Netflix! Almost three dozen tax increases have added $22 billion to the cost of living on B.C.
Another way of saying that is they have taken $22 billion more out of your pockets. They have increased your cost of living.
Things are observably worse. Everything is more costly; nothing has missed the grasping hand of government. Massive new taxes, accelerating public debts and deficits are all evident.
By 2026, B.C.’s net government debt, which you are obligated to pay, will have grown by 227% since 2016 -17. This year’s deficit is estimated at another $8 billion. That’s more than the entire K-12 education system cost when the current government took over.
The carbon tax has taken $2.5 billion from you this year alone, and the government took it, instead of giving it back through income tax cuts as they were legislatively committed to do.
The cost of living is soaring because the government is addicted to taxes, not to performance.
Our health system is in collapse. Ask the one in five British Columbians who don’t have a family physician.
Without a family physician, people have to line up for hours in emergency wards — and to make matters worse, the government randomly closes emergency wards, effectively removing health-care services in places where elected officials don’t live.
No physicians and no emergency wards mean, plainly speaking, no health care. Wait lists have become death lists for too many.
And to top it off, a British Columbian living in Canada does not have the same access to care as a Quebec resident has, because the government proudly prohibits it.
That is just wrong. It has to change, but only our votes will change it.
Education, one of the cornerstone services we provide to our children, is faltering. No longer will our children go to the “little red schoolhouse;” we force them into trailers as classrooms.
While housing kids in temporary trailers, the government has effectively said to parents, “you are not welcome.” That is bad public policy and extremely bad for our kids.
Our curriculum has deteriorated so an astounding number of Grade 10 students cannot meet basic literacy standards. That is unacceptable in the 21st century.
Our public streets, roads, and public places are more dangerous. The government’s revolving-door policies have put violent offenders back out on the streets.
Their “harm reduction” policies have failed and cause great harm. For the first time in my life, I hear about British Columbians looking outside of B.C. and Canada to find a new home, leaving not just B.C. but also Canada.
This election gives us a chance to start fixing the problems, but there is only one way to do it: Vote for change.
If you believe that B.C. is going in the right direction, vote to continue with the current government. But if you believe change is needed, vote for change.
If you want to get the cost of living down, and affordable housing within reach of renters and owners, young and old, all over the province, we need change.
We need to eliminate the billions of government-imposed costs on housing. Make no mistake — we can.
If voters want lower taxes, if they want more take-home pay, we can do that too.
If voters demand a health-care system that meets patient needs; if we want health care that works in a timely, caring and decent way; if we want to stop wait lists in health care from deteriorating in growing death lists; if we want to stop emergency ward closures; if we want to stop the revolving door in the justice system where dangerous people are put back on the streets; if we want to be able to walk down their streets without fear with their children; if we want to use their parks freely and enjoy their community centres with their kids — we need to vote for change.
We can change things for the better.
If people want a real say in creating true reconciliation with Métis and Indigenous people, then all of us must be included in the discussion. None should be pushed aside, and private property and property rights must be protected.
You cannot right the wrongs of the past by ignoring the rights of citizens today. We are in danger of that if the government continues its one-sided exclusionary discussion that leaves the public and public interest locked out of the negotiating room.
We can secure all these things in British Columbia — but to do so requires commitment to the facts and the evidence, and a commitment to you instead of to a false and failed ideology.
Let’s give people in B.C. hope again. Let’s give our young people the chance to earn a future worthy of our past.
Some will say change can’t happen, but they are wrong. Change will happen if we all demand it and vote for it!
There is only one choice if you are looking for change: The B.C. Conservatives. If our votes go to alternative candidates, the New Democratic Party will win. Split votes mean the NDP wins. That is clear from our history.
If they win, change won’t happen. Our public services will follow the path of deterioration that has been set out by the current government. Things will get worse. Re-electing the NDP has real consequences. It is too risky to your future and for your kids to let that happen.
B.C. is a big, beautiful province. We need a small, smart government to protect it and that let’s you build the future you want for you and your family, regardless of where we live. Please vote!
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