Isn't it strange that a government that spends a great deal of time misrepresenting the record of the 1990s would start its "Golden Decade" with an economic forecast that real GDP will grow at the average rate achieved throughout the 90s? In his budget speech Finance Minister Collin Hansen said: "we are forecasting real economic growth of 3.1% in 2005 and 3.0% in each of the two following years."

The following table shows GDP for 1991 and 2000 in constant 1997 dollars. The real economic growth over those 9 years, and on an average annual basis, is also shown in the table. Contrary to the election rhetoric from the Campbell Liberals, BC ranked in fourth place with 3.0% average annual real growth. When the period 2001 through 2003 is examined, BC slipped to fifth place with average annual real growth of 2.9%. Preliminary estimates for 2004 will not be released by Statistics Canada until late April 2005; those estimates will be revised in November 2005.

	1991 GDP billions of 1997$	2000 GDP billions of 1997$	growth	average annual growth
Alta	82.925	121.153	46.1%	4.3%
Ont	304.468	429.105	40.9%	3.9%
PEI	2.335	3.111	33.2%	3.2%
BC	95.897	125.145	30.5%	3.0%
Que	166.241	215.424	29.6%	2.9%
NB	14.999	18.942	26.3%	2.6%
Man	26.339	32.846	24.7%	2.5%
Sask	25.219	31.252	23.9%	2.4%
NS	18.570	22.970	23.7%	2.4%
NL	10.301	12.322	19.6%	2.0%
Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 384-0002