Dear British Columbians:
Today I bring good news and bad news. Pick your perspective, one or the other.
The good news, if you love the new government, is that you have $2.8 billion of found money to play with – buckets of bills from heaven, a surplus you never suspected.
Nor, for that matter, did the Liberals know until it was too late, until it was their post-election Hail Mary pass into the end zone as time ran out on the clock and the fans had left the stands.
As a new government you can calmly tick the boxes on many short-term promises: get rid of the MSP, kill the bridge tolls, help the under-helped, sprinkle some fairy dust and dispel some of the economic fear, stoke the nice vibe.
The bad news, if you love the old government, is that you have handed to those you could not hate more a generous runway so they may avoid falling into the stereotype of a tax-and-spend socialist government.
Congrats. You have patented BC NDP 2.0, surrendered to your enemies a full year, at least, of insurance money in the bank to fritter as they see fit. Might as well have given the kids the keys to the Lamborghini.
Even if they can’t shoot straight, they can appear leaders when they are inheritors, rather like Trump taking credit for the employment numbers Obama built.
They owe you, but good luck on that.
How, you might ask, did you do this as a BC Liberal government that seemed so serenely at the helm for years of Canada’s best-performing economy?
How did the eye come off the ball? Did no one text you or DM or meet you in the hallway to say, hey, listen, the money was gushing into the treasury near campaign’s end and you could make a promise here and there and almost anywhere to save, say, JUST. . .ONE. . .SEAT? ONE SEAT! ONE!
How? How did this happen? It cost you the 2017 election. It now may cost you one in 2018 or 2019. It is the best evidence possible that the crew you loved needs to be brought to the parking lot, hand over its keys and never be seen again.
But as I said, I bring good news and bad news – depending on your perspective.
The good news, if you are new-government supporters, is that, in a rather head-spinning way, the ideas that you as an opposition campaigned for, then prompted an outgoing government to agree to and enshrine in a throne speech, then as a lingering opposition voted against to oust a government that promised what you really wanted, you as a new government get to enact.
The bad news is that the benchmark you are given today – that sudden surplus, the prize of a political lifetime, the beautiful balance sheet – is unlikely to be as rosy in a year’s time. Sure, our national economy’s performance is outsized, and sure, B.C. is benefiting from revenue it never expected, but you will not be prettier than in the dress you are now wearing. Take the picture now!
The really bad news is that many of your most important commitments on housing and child care and public education, the real game-changers of your administration, are back-loaded and will hit the books only after something else has already hit them. You can promise they’re coming, but they will arrive only in your second term, if then, and certainly in tougher circumstance. The ephemeral stuff is up front, the serious stuff is down back. Bad news.
So, new government, this is not exactly about making hay when the sun shines. This is about making a statue out of something you thought you might have to bury, a shrine to show off come next election – which will be sooner than late 2018, one suspects.
And about that Green guy off to the side: no worries. He’ll support everything, everything, everything, in order to get a shot at proportional representation. Idea: a cabinet order to expropriate his house, just to see what he does. My hunch is he’ll start packing the furniture. He’s with you, at least for the PR part of the hitchhike.
But time is a-wasting, new admin. Spend and spend before the dollars you hold turn into the dollars you owe.
Sincerely yours,
An observer. •
Kirk LaPointe is Business in Vancouver’s vice-president of audience and business development.
