 Artist: Ingrid Rice |
In his April 20th column in The Vancouver Sun, columnist Stephen Hume took the BC Liberals to task for wooing voters with their own money, for at the drop of the writ on April 19th greasing the skids for its candidates to shower voters with endless promises. For Hume, the end — election to government for a second term — does not justify the means.
Considering that our provincial Liberals are the same tough-love folks who just a short while ago were axing support for shelters for battered women fleeing abusive relationships, terrifying the poor and disabled with their hard-boiled approach to restraint, separating aged spouses to achieve efficiencies in nursing homes, beating up on hospital cleaning staff and telling us they had to endure the pain because there wasn’t enough cash, the ease with which they embarked upon the present spending spree is particularly odious.
In his April 27th column, Hume once again goes after the Liberals, and Gordon Campbell as the “architect of a heartless plan to balance the books on the backs of the most defenceless among us — battered and abused women, the disabled, the poor, the sick, troubled kids at risk, welfare recipients and frail seniors.” Read the entire column here.
Over at The Tyee, Russ Francis finds that BC Liberals haven’t delivered on their promise for “open, transparent and accountable” government, while Vancouver School Board trustee Noel Herron writes that “Once the BC Liberals’ increased pre-election education funding grant is spent, school boards almost certainly will find themselves back in the red …”
Meanwhile, the NDP continue to bash Gordon Campbell’s covert boy in the bubble campaign, saying that Liberal handlers are keeping Campbell away from the public by keeping a lid on the his daily campaign itinerary, staging events where only invited guests were welcome.
In an April 25th column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Joel Connelly has this to say about the role of the Green Party in the provincial election …
A Bowron River-sized clearcut, visible from satellites: Naders of the North, the B.C. Greens once again threaten to split the center-left vote as British Columbia goes to the polls May 17. The likely result is re-election of the not-very-liberal B.C. Liberals of Premier Gordon Campbell. The Campbell government has dismantled the province’s environment ministry, blocked action on Victoria sewage dumping, and allowed the timber industry to cut virtually without restraint or regulation. Its main opposition, the leftish New Democratic Party, doubled the province’s provincial park system during the 1990s, but found itself targeted by the Greens in the province’s 2001 election.
Will the Greens once again prove spoilers in the May 17th election?
In his updated election prediction model, BattleGround BC, the Tyee’s Will McMartin has the NDP in line for solid wins in 9 ridings — adding sure NDP wins in Surrey-Whalley, Nelson-Creston, West Kootenay Boundary, Nanaimo, Victoria-Hillside and NDP leader Carole James’ home riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill — as well as likely to win in 9 additional ridings, and in contention in as many as 20 more ridings across the province.
