Why the NDP is in power now

[JagXKR]

lol well mabey in 4 years the bclibs might come up with a non corrupt leader and have a chance at winning. if you think the greens will side with the current bclibs your dreaming.

You mean the best Premier ever, right? Basically ran the entire government by herself, according to some on this forum. Amazing woman to run a Province completely alone.
Horgan the Horrible will go down in flames in 1 year or less. Unholy alliance is the only reason the NDG is governing. Plain and simple.

[hobbyguy]

The NDP "participation award" government is there because:

1. They sucked in voters with a massive and false vote mining operation. The most important one being the "no bridge tolls" - that has now morphed into "no bridge tolls except from NDP mayors Gregor and Derek et al". Without the "no bridge tolls" nonsense - the Liberals have a majority.
2. They sucked Andrew Weaver into believing they would be honorable partners. That's gone already.

It will not last. It is already becoming a disaster and they have not yet passed a single piece of legislation.

[Urban Cowboy]

The NDP "participation award" government is there because:

1. They sucked in voters with a massive and false vote mining operation. The most important one being the "no bridge tolls" - that has now morphed into "no bridge tolls except from NDP mayors Gregor and Derek et al". Without the "no bridge tolls" nonsense - the Liberals have a majority.
2. They sucked Andrew Weaver into believing they would be honorable partners. That's gone already.

It will not last. It is already becoming a disaster and they have not yet passed a single piece of legislation.

About the only thing the NDP is good at passing is gas.

[Cactusflower]

May I suggest waiting until the first sitting of the legislature before adding anymore sour grapes comments?

[Jlabute]

RECONCILIATION OF GROSS BORROWING TO THE CHANGE IN DEBT
2016/2017 2017/2018 2018/2019 2019/2020
Opening balance as at March 31.................................... 65,292 66,666 69,787 73,458

Gross increase in debt ……………...................................... 3,741 5,877 7,540 7,379

Net change in provincial debt……….................................. 1,374 3,121 3,670 4,231

Ending balance as at March 31…................................... 66,666 69,787 73,458 77,689

Our debt will increase by 11B by the time the NDP even figure it out.

[Rwede]

*removed*

[flamingfingers]

The 'surplus' can easily be explained:

[hobbyguy]

FF - that's simplistic nonsense.

Schools were closed because of declining enrollment.

AND if you ever actually looked the financial statements, the current surplus has 0, oops that's a number, better say zero from ICBC and very little from BC Hydro because the legislation for dividends from BC Hydro automatically chops the dividends when the BC Hydro debt/equity ratio hits a trigger level, which it did with borrowing for site C.

The NDP are not going to chop MSP rates any further than they already have been.

What weakened environmental standards? Post a link to the legislation please.

As usual, just NDP talking points that make no sense.

[rustled]

^^Simplistic nonsense, indeed. I'd add, clawbacks from those on disability were significantly reduced in the last term as well. We're watching to see whether the NDP can make further improvements now that they're in power.

It's easy to promise $100 more a month ($50 more than the government already in power was promising) in order to attain power, but a lot more difficult to successfully implement more significant improvements.

It's one thing to throw cash at folk to grasp power for your party, and quite another to genuinely empower others.

[The Green Barbarian]

FF - that's simplistic nonsense.

.

The nonsense has to be simplistic for the NDP sheep to be continued to be controlled.

[Bigdaddy2290]

Jlabute - your commas are all over the place.. so I missed your point.

Each party has their favourite ventures and pour money into those. Google "provincial debt vs GDP" and you will see that the years the NDP were in power were just as awful as the Liberals. Each party just tries to buy votes.

[rustled]

Jlabute - your commas are all over the place.. so I missed your point.

Each party has their favourite ventures and pour money into those. Google "provincial debt vs GDP" and you will see that the years the NDP were in power were just as awful as the Liberals. Each party just tries to buy votes.

(My bold.) If you click on "quote" in posts like this, the columns line up in your reply pane, and you can see how the table should read.

ETA: Sorry this is a bit off-topic, Mods, but: to make tables behave, use periods instead of spaces. Still not perfect, but easier to read. Maybe other folk have a simpler and more consistent solution?

RECONCILIATION OF GROSS BORROWING TO THE CHANGE IN DEBT
.................................................................. 2016/2017 .... 2017/2018 ..... 2018/2019 ... 2019/2020
Opening balance as at March 31........................ 65,292 ........ 66,666 ..... 69,787 ....... 73,458

Gross increase in debt ........................................ 3,741 .......... 5,877 ....... 7,540 ......... 7,379

Net change in provincial debt............................... 1,374 .......... 3,121 ........ 3,670 ....... 4,231

Ending balance as at March 31…........................ 66,666 .......... 69,787 ...... 73,458 ...... 77,689

Our debt will increase by 11B by the time the NDP even figure it out.

[Cactusflower]

The NDP is in power now because enough people were sick and tired of the way the BCLP were running (ruining) this province. Those who were happy with how our province was being run were either blind, or simply blindly partisan.

[Urban Cowboy]

The NDP is in power now because enough people were sick and tired of the way the BCLP were running (ruining) this province. Those who were happy with how our province was being run were either blind, or simply blindly partisan.

Or they were simply competent enough to grasp that a vibrant economy is a good thing for everyone. Something the NDP do their utmost to trash supported by their clueless minions.

[hobbyguy]

It all came down to bridge tolls and a back room deal that resulted in a "participation award" government.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-votes-2017-results-surrey-1.4103524

"Brar was able to win one of the closest swing ridings in the 2017 B.C. election.

He attributed his victory to the NDP's promise to eliminate tolls on local bridges..."

Brar softened his comment a bit, but the first thing he mentions in his tight victory is the bridge tolls. That single seat alone, and there is no "participation award" government.

So the NDP used a bad policy decision, and it is a bad policy decision, to mine for votes. In the end, they are going to allow NDP Gregor and NDP Derek to reach into the pockets of Surrey voters, and take the toll money anyway.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/to-toll-or-not-to-toll-is-that-the-election-question/ . https://www.surreynowleader.com/news/elimination-of-bridge-tolls-raises-questions/

"Meantime, Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver – whose party formed an alliance with the NDP after the May 9 election to defeat the BC Liberals – called the removal of the tolls “reckless.”

“There is no question that the affordability crisis facing so many British Columbians is a significant concern,” Weaver said in a news release. “However, this policy is high cost and low impact. There are lots of good, high return-on-investments decisions that government can make, such as education, student housing and child care. It is disappointing that the first major measure that this government has taken to make life more affordable for British Columbians will add billions of dollars to taxpayer-supported debt.”"

Meanwhile, businesses and corporations get a nice tax cut. 3/4 of the tolls were paid by commercial traffic...
Meanwhile the province gets to add $3.7 billion+ in taxpayer supported debt, which may affect the credit rating and drive up costs even more than the apparent debt servicing costs...
Meanwhile the province has 200 million in revenue missing...

See how easy it is to mess up a budget balance. The NDP are really good at giving the appearance of doing something, but in fact doing nothing but managing to add costs and kill jobs.