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Economic record defended

Vern Polotikis asks for a retraction, without ever checking his facts except for the years that the NDP and B.C. Liberals were each in power (Wikipedia).

Vern Polotikis asks for a retraction, without ever checking his facts except for the years that the NDP and B.C. Liberals were each in power (Wikipedia).

If he had consulted easily accessed, online economists’ reports (Central1 Credit Union, Royal Bank of Canada, or B.C. Auditor General Office), Mr. Polotikis would have noticed that every year for the almost decade that the NDP governed in B.C., our gross domestic product rose by between four and 4.5 per cent. A growing GDP translates into jobs and economic well being.

Since the B.C. Liberals took office, they gave away the $1.6 billion surplus they inherited, single-handedly allowed our West Coast forest industry to decline into log exports only (operating lumber mills now are busy taking bug-killed trees in the Interior), gave away our provincial railroad, squeezed the education budget dry, produced the highest child poverty rates in the country, and never realized a GDP growth of more than four per cent.

Dave Barrett’s government can be remembered for increasing the rate for our gas and electricity exports instead of the pennies the Socreds were receiving. At least the money charged for our resources was higher than what we, the residents, have to pay. Why give our future away at bargain prices?

How is it then, you ask, that the NDP are remembered as bad economic managers? Because the B.C. Liberals have consistently misrepresented the facts and if you repeat a lie often enough, some people will believe it. Ask yourself, “What facts are the B.C. Liberals misrepresenting now?”

Simo Korpisto

Coldstream