Keeping it Real…

It was quite apparent … right from the start. David Eby and the NDP were missing a key element needed in any democratic election campaign:

CREDIBILITY.

When Eby announced the snap election, he said the reason was because he needed a strong mandate to fight Donald Trump and his tariff war on British Columbia and Canada.

Few believed him.

So the NDP Premier tried another rationale: his majority of two seats was too slim: the NDP neeeded a stronger mandate.

Few believed him.

Most British Columbians believed (knew?) the real reason Eby decided to go to the polls only two years into the NDP’s latest mandate was to take advantage of the Opposition Conservatives, under Kerry Lynne-Findlay, being in absolute turmoil.

So Eby decided to spend $85 MILLION taxpayers’ dollars to sew up another four year mandate.

British Columbians were not amused.

When the Conservatives chose a new leader … Lorne Doerkson, long-time MLA , party Caucus chair and Depute Speaker of the Legislature … the NDP continued to denigrate their opponents as dangerois radicals and nutbars.

Few believed them.

Then came the promises: Eby made dozens of promises … 20 new primary care clinics; 1,000 more training seats for health care workers; added MRI and CT Scan machines across the province; hire 50 more Crown prosecutors to improve Court services; 7,200 more “before and after” school care spaces; $50 million more for people to install heat pumps; price caps on food essentials; etc. etc.

Few believed him.

I can’t count the number of people I heard ask, since Eby/NDP had a majority government … “Why didn’t they just do all these things without an election?”

NO CREDIBILITY!

And , from what I saw, Eby himself often didn’t seem to really believe what he was saying to reporters and the public.

He came across as arrogant, cold and, especially when defending his decision to call the election, unbelievable.

So the voters made him pay.

Harv Oberfeld

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The NDP under David Eby has had its chances … twice in fact, over the past four years under Eby and nine years in total under Eby/Horgan.

Let’s keep it real: the results have not been good under Eby!

The forest industry is on life support; much of the rest of our economy is bad; thousands (especially young people) have left the province; the deficit just this year is $13.8 Billion; the projected debt by 2028 tops $155 Billion!

And yet, so many of our problems have gotten worse!

Has health care improved? Are there fewer Emergency Department closures? Have waiting lists for surgeries/MRI/therapies improved? Have we forgotten all the hospital expansions that were cancelled? Are seniors needing long term care getting it? Are there fewer homeless problems? Do people feel safer just walking down the street?

BC cannot go on like this!

I am sure the NDP are well intentioned, but the reality is they just are not good at running government like a business out to serve its paying clientele … and the BC government, in a way, is a business.

The people of BC are the shareholders and we have a right to expect our Board of Directors and their administrators to do more than just hand out money to those who they feel need it, give away our properties and hundreds of millions to those who demand them and, as a result, drive our deficit up, our debt up and our credit rating down, down, down.

How many voters are even aware that things have gotten so bad, just the interest on our debt is costing us around $14 MILLION A DAY!!!

Think of that: the interest alone on our debt is costing us around $14 MILLION A DAY!!!

It’s so bad that if the NDP gets re-elected, fiscally prudent taxpayers will find themselves hoping that Eby once again breaks many of his current promises: because if he went ahead with all of them, our deficit and debt would likely propel BC into Third World fiscal status! And I haven’t heard him say what existing spending he’d cut to make way for all the new spending he’s dangling before us.

No doubt the Conservatives have also promised debt/deficit-increasing goodies to woo the voters, but I suspect they’ll cut things most of the public would agree with, like some the 63 Health Authority Vice-Presidents, slashing other areas of the provincial bureaucracy as well, trimming the hundreds of millions spent to support, rather than heal, the druggies, and increase revenues by encouraging business, slashing red tape, reducing investment-crippling regulations, cutting ideologically driven social programs/spending and opening government projects to more competitive non-union bids.

And then there’s DRIPA!

At best, this UN-pie-in-the-sky fairy tale will see huge tracts of BC public lands and hundreds of millions of dollars just handed over to the First Nations (no wonder no other province has adopted DRIPA); and, at its worst, at the hands of a single social activist judge, another DRIPA ruling could place private lands in jeopardy as well … when it comes to title or perhaps, as “compensation”, subject to an annual “indigenous” proprietary extra tax as well.

If a Conservative government repeals DRIPA as promised, history will treat their term in office as a win, win, win for public and private lands policy.

It boggles my mind to think that there are still many people who want to give Eby/NDP another four years to rule BC!

The BC Conservatives deserve a chance to tackle the province’s mounting problems with a more business-orientated government.

If they fail, then we can throw them out … after the NDP has rid themselves of Eby and done a reality adjustment to more effectively represent the interests/needs of the majority of working British Columbians … instead of the loudest, agitating, activist minorities.

Harv Oberfeld

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