FORSETH: Christy wants us to know how good we have it

Want to guess which BC provincial political party, waiting to become the next government, said the following?

• we believe that government is making life tougher instead of better for the average BC family
• while households scrimp, save, and cut back on essentials, the one expense they cannot control or escaper is government taxes.  The main reason British Columbians are working harder and falling behind is the constant and rapid rise in taxes
• while everyone is paying higher taxes, the return to taxpayers on the things that matter most is declining
• the major problems facing this province all have one key element in common   -- they are being created by our government
• British Columbians need a government that will base its decisions on common-sense principles, and live within its means
• the sacrifices made to get our financial house in order must not be sabotaged by future increases in government spending
• by shifting funds on and off the books, the government has shown how the existing system can be manipulated
• ___ believes that governments closest to the people serve them best.  ___ will return resources and responsibilities to local government, advancing our spirit of community and raising our quality of life
• the best way to change government is to open it up and bring its many functions closer to the people it servers .  ___ believes that the closer decision-making is to the people, the more likely it is that good ideas will be put to work.

The words noted above, were spoken by the BC Liberals prior to the election of 1996.  They were words of chastising the NDP government which was in power -- they were words that were intended to offer new hope.

While these emotionally charged political statements go back over two decades, I ask you ... is anything really any different when it comes to being governed by the BC Liberals?  It's twenty years later, and some would say rather than seeing things better for British Columbians, they are in fact worse.

PERHAPS it could be said that taxes are lower, but then again we are being nickel and dimed in service fees ... MSP rates will finally be going down (but NOT for another year) ... and our BC Liberal government continues to add BILLIONS in debt.

Small town rural BC continues to shrink every more rapidly as government policies allow big business to remove the assets that once created good high paying jobs.

As I have mentioned on many prior occasions, we have a carbon tax that hits those who live in the interior and north hard -- and not just for the fuel required to run our vehicles ... it also gets added to basic necessities like home heating fuel, our groceries, and even the clothes we wear! 

Those who most need Legal Aid are unable to access it because the funding it is supposed to get is buried instead in General Revenue.

Government has pillaged BC Hydro and ICBC for billions of dollars, which have disappeared into a bottomless spending pit.  Meantime we continue to be hit with large increases to ICBC rates, and Hydro costs.

In fact, if insurance rates are not increased rapidly, ICBC will be in serious financial difficulties.

My friends ... WE ARE NOT better off than we were twenty years ago.  Whether governed by the NDP, or by the BC Liberals, one is pretty much as bad as the other.

Government is still making life tougher ... government raises fees and taxes ... government is reckless with increased debt that will have to be paid by current and future generations ... government is providing less services and less front-line workers ...

Oh, and where are those much promised family doctors? Yah, right ... welcome to the world of walk-in clinics.  Oh ... but those too are now beginning to close!!

But ... Christy wants us to know how good we have it.  That's why we are now being flooded with taxpayer paid for advertising extolling the virtues of Christy Clark and her BC Liberal government. Millions upon millions of hard earned taxpayer dollars are now being flushed down the drain ... advertising that is biased to the core, and which should have been paid by the BC Liberals, to extoll all of their wonderful (/) virtues (?).

HELP ... where is a strong independent candidate when we need one?

In Kamloops ... I'm Alan Forseth.