April 14, 2005

Platforms

Wednesday, April 13th, was the day of battling platforms. The NDP and the Greens both released their platforms. The governing Campbell Liberals are expected to produce a platform document by April 19th.

Coverage on Global TV indicated the major difference between the Greens and the NDP. Global had a video from Green Leader Adriane Carr in which she said: "One MLA is a break-through." With that statement Carr revealed that she is a spoiler with no chance of forming a government, and none of the responsibility of framing a realistic platform. Carr complained about the timing of the NDP's platform release, but hundreds of New Democrats participated in writing the platform and dozens knew weeks in advance the date planned for its release.

The NDP's Carole James refused to speculate in the seats-to-win numbers game but said others indicate the NDP could win between 5 and 50 seats. The voters will determine the numbers, but the NDP's platform is built on the premise of possibly governing. It is fully costed, moderate and marginal. The Liberals cannot attack it without undermining the budget they presented before adjourning the Legislature without calling estimates debate.

Media outlets stepped in where the Campbell Liberals didn't go and provided their own criticism of the NDP's platform. A common theme was to criticize the NDP for not promising to roll-back all of the damage that Campbell inflicted on BC. That is kind of like blaming the shopkeeper for not being able to paste together the china after a bull has rampaged through the store. Cuts have not been made in isolation; Campbell fundamentally altered the structure of provincial finances with a combination of radical cuts followed by MSP and fee increases together with broken contracts and spending slashes. No bull in a china shop could have done as much damage! The miracle is that the NDP has emerged from a near death experience to be competitive and to be able to say that they would at least stop the damage and make modest restoration of lost services.

It can be expected that the detailed NDP platform will be attacked on its specifics, but some critics have already started to invent weakness where they don't exist. On Global's noon news it was suggested that the NDP might have difficulty identifying where it would save 50% on the Liberal's election slush fund of $238 million. That would only be a challenge if the Campbell Liberals could identify where the $238 million was going to be spent; by failing to allow the Legislature to sit for estimates debate, no one can account for the allocation of every dollar of that fund. Perhaps the critics could reconcile the news releases with the monies in the slush fund. Finance Minister Collin Hansen criticized the NDP for suggesting that it could redirect $304 million in health spending, less than 3% of the health budget, yet he routinely directed officials to make more substantial changes.

It must be frustrating for the Campbell Liberals to see an NDP platform that is firmly rooted in their own budget numbers. On a budget with a base of $32.5 billion in spending, the NDP has shown how it would do a better job by reallocating $326 million in spending and reserves, just one percent of the total budget. Before the last election, Campbell supporters said that any government could reallocate or cut 5% without doing any harm. How can Campbell possibly claim that 1% of the budget cannot be redistributed? James and the NDP have challenged Campbell to a debate on how each marginal dollar of government spending should be spent - on pre-election goodies or on health and education.