Campbell's Credibility

September 27, 2004

Campbell's Credibility

New Era Do you remember all the smiling faces in the New Era Document? Those who don't regularly visit the Campbell Liberal website (the one their party finances, not the government site) might be surprised to know that it has undergone a major revision in the past month. Until recently the site boasted both an html and a pdf version of their New Era Document (NED), their 2001 campaign promises. Pages of that document were usually displayed on the wall behind Ministers during the staged cabinet meetings. Suddenly, there is no reference and no ability to retrieve NED from the Campbell Liberal website.

It is not surprising that the New Era gang would want to run away from their promises; that's when they said they would:

Phase out Burrard Thermal.
Establish provincial health standards that ensure all citizens in every part of the province are entitled to equitable, reliable, high quality health services.
Establish a Rural and Remote Health Initiative to ensure all families get the care they need, where they live, when they need it.
Fund health regions at a level necessary to meet the needs of the people who live there, regardless of where a service is provided.
Fulfill BC's obligations under the Canada Health Act to properly fund and provide access to all medically necessary services.
Work with non-profit societies to build and operate an additional 5,000 new intermediate and long term care beds by 2006.
Provide expanded home care and palliative care services to assist chronically and terminally ill patients with supportive home environments, as an option to institutional care.
Provide better home support and home care services.
Work with foster parents to help them improve care and placements of foster children.
Enhance training, resources and authority for front-line social workers to properly protect children at risk and improve services to families.
Establish workable recall legislation to make it easier for citizens to hold MLAs accountable.
Establish workable initiative legislation, to make it feasible for British Columbians to call for a referendum on issues of province-wide concern that fall within the provincial government's jurisdiction.

Nailing down all of the broken promises from the Campbell government is like nailing jelly to the wall. Even though the BC Liberal website no longer provides the 2001 campaign promises, some of them are offered at taxpayers' expense at: http://www.gov.bc.ca/bcgov/content/docs/@235G1_0YQtuW/04may20_new_era_review.pdf. It takes a strong stomach to read that stuff, but posting partisan material to a government website is probably small potatoes relative to the expensive TV ad campaign government is now running.

It looks like the Campbell Liberal party and the government haven't completely gotten their act together. A review of the list of "kept" promises on the government site may sicken many, but it provides an exercise for determining the credibility of the Campbell government. Imagine the arrogance of a government that claims it has not sold BC Rail and not expanded gambling. How can anyone believe anything they say about what they would do in the next four years? Just think about the pamphlet they published in 2001. A New Era for Students turned out to be 85% average increases in tuition fees; a New Era of Public Service turned out to be 30% downsizing; and a New Era of Health Quality turned into longer waiting lists, a 50% increase in MSP premiums and more private, for profit, health care. Just think what four more years of Campbell's New Era might bring - no more low cost public auto insurance, the privatization of the rest of BC Hydro, and user fees for health care as private clinics flourish. 63% of British Columbians say that the Campbell government doesn't deserve to be re-elected on the basis of what it's done since the last election.

Just think of what they'll do after the next election!