Promises, promises.....

[flamingfingers]

Billions in promises
Darren Handschuh - Mar 11, 2017 / 12:28 pm | Story: 191328

Photo: Contributed
The road to the upcoming provincial election is paved with gold as the ruling Liberals continue their spending spree before the big day.

CTV Vancouver's parliamentary bureau chief Bhinder Sajan tallied up the promises to get an idea of the rapidly rising price tag of government promises.

And it is not cheap. Since December the Liberals have made announcements totalling $5 billion – all on the taxpayers dime.

The rest:
http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#191328

[lasnomadas]

One only has to review the Christy Clark promises from the 2013 election campaign to know what the BC Liberal promises are worth. Gee, where do I start? I guess the first promise was that sign on the campaign bus, "Debt-Free B.C." In reality, Clark has doubled the provincial debt in the years since she took over from Campbell.

Then there was the 20 LNG plants, the100,000 LNG jobs, the trillion dollar Prosperity Fund, the removal of the PST, the removal of MSP premiums, highway and hospital improvements, and a family doctor for all.

Is the BC electorate going to be duped by this snake-oil salesperson again? I certainly hope not!

[Urbane]

One only has to review the Christy Clark promises from the 2013 election campaign to know what the BC Liberal promises are worth. Gee, where do I start? I guess the first promise was that sign on the campaign bus, "Debt-Free B.C." In reality, Clark has doubled the provincial debt in the years since she took over from Campbell.

Then there was the 20 LNG plants, the100,000 LNG jobs, the trillion dollar Prosperity Fund, the removal of the PST, the removal of MSP premiums, highway and hospital improvements, and a family doctor for all.

Is the BC electorate going to be duped by this snake-oil salesperson again? I certainly hope not!

We've been increasing our debt because people want services and they don't want to see their taxes increased to pay for those services. Remember the HST battle? LNG has certainly not panned out, thus far, as had been thought but the situation may look better in a few years. Still, she did talk about the goal of a debt-free BC and we've been going in the other direction. At least we're better off than most other places.

I don't recall Christy Clark promising to remove the PST. Can you provide a link to that promise? I'd also point out that there have been highway and hospital improvements so I'm not sure what you're getting at there. Finally, the government has opened up new medical schools. Back in the 1990's the NDP government actually cut back on producing doctors and we've been playing catch-up ever since. We still have a ways to go though.

[Barney Google]

I wonder how many times JT is going to be making trips to BC from now until election time?

He's a wonderful shining example that has shown Canada how promises to voters are to be kept ...

Christie is gonna do well with his support.

[lasnomadas]

It's not difficult to recall the HST; we're still paying it, or at least the equivalent of it. If you really want to see references to Christy's 2013 promises, I'm sure you can find them all by yourself. They are burned into my memory, just as I'm sure they're burned into the memories of most British Columbians. Remember, "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".

I'm not naive enough to think that all B.C. voters will have had enough of the BC Liberals by the time May 9 rolls around, but for the life of me I can't understand why not.

[flamingfingers]

Well, there is one promise that Christy hasn't made, but has made obvious:

More debt for us and future generations:

[The Green Barbarian]

It's not difficult to recall the HST; we're still paying it, or at least the equivalent of it.

What "we" are paying for is the decision to get rid of the HST. I blame Gordon Campbell for allowing a simple majority to get rid of it, and I blame the 800,000 idiots who voted against it in the referendum.

[The Green Barbarian]

More debt for us and future generations:

Where is the debt in that graph? Can you provide an actual honest graph if you are going to talk about debt? Contract obligations aren't debt. I realize that math is hard, but this is a pretty simple concept to grasp.

[The Green Barbarian]

Is the BC electorate going to be duped by this snake-oil salesperson again? I certainly hope not!

I haven't heard of Horgan being referred to as snake-oil salesperson before, and I'm wondering if that's an apt description. He's more stupid than a snake-oil salesman, in my estimation.

[flamingfingers]

Contract obligations aren't debt.

They are bills into the future that will have to be paid each and every month/year. Thanks to the "Borrow and Spend" ChristyLiberals.

Does it mean that contractual obligations that Gordon Campbell tied BC hydro to can just be ignored and not paid?
What about the payments to P3s for the Port Mann bridge, the Sea-to-Sky highway? A 20-year contract for laundry services to BC hospitals?

Just ignore them and not pay them because they are not 'debt'?

[Urbane]

Contract obligations aren't debt.



They are bills into the future that will have to be paid each and every month/year. Thanks to the "Borrow and Spend" ChristyLiberals.

Does it mean that contractual obligations that Gordon Campbell tied BC hydro to can just be ignored and not paid?
What about the payments to P3s for the Port Mann bridge, the Sea-to-Sky highway? A 20-year contract for laundry services to BC hospitals?

Just ignore them and not pay them because they are not 'debt'?

I posted a list of some of those future contractual obligations a few weeks ago and no one said that they were opposed to those expenditures. Everyone seems to want the things (like hospital improvements) on the list. Some people complain that the government is spending too much and too little at the same time and they just hope that they'll strike a chord with some people. When it comes to spending this government is a centrist one. Not too far left and not too far left. They're not going to please everyone but they have it about right.

[lasnomadas]

For those who are mathematically-challenged, PST + GST = HST.
For those who are easily duped by politicians, Christy Clark, Rich Coleman, and the rest of her mouth-pieces have been selling you snake oil for over 6 years, and Gordon Campbell sold it for at least 10 years before that, starting with "I will not sell BC Rail" and continuing until he slithered out of office after his approval rating hit a low of 9%. Christy will likely reach that level before May 9, 2017.