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Will McMartin Shoots Down Squawking Gaggle of Campbell Praisers
A 'great' premier whose fiscal skill made BC 'great' for business? The facts say no.
Gordon Campbell takes premier's oath of office, June 2001.
-
Gordon Campbell, Financial Genius?
Lib rollercoaster ride ends up where it started.
-
Campbell's Tax Cuts Failed to Work
Jobs and investment were supposed to flow, but didn't. Biggest loser: our wrecked forest economy.
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Campbell, Fudger of Finances
Wasn't his party supposed to have business brains?
Is it ironic, or just plain weird, that while only nine per cent of British Columbians currently hold a positive view of Gordon Campbell, close to 100 per cent of the mainstream media remain deeply infatuated with our soon-to-be ex-premier?
Consider the editorial published in the Globe and Mail on Nov. 4, one day after the deeply unpopular premier announced that he was quitting politics. "Gordon Campbell," the Globe bleated, "will be judged as one of the great premiers of British Columbia."
Seriously? By whom? The great unwashed certainly don't hold that view, and no political historian could claim with a straight face that Campbell's accomplishments in office compare favourably to those of such provincial giants as W.A.C. Bennett, John Hart, or Richard McBride (or even Duff Pattullo or John Oliver).
Heck, even Dave Barrett (in just three and a half years) left a more substantive legislative catalogue than did Campbell (over 10 years), had a better surplus-deficit record and left a smaller taxpayer-supported-debt-to-GDP ratio (seven per cent compared to Campbell's 17 per cent).
Maybe the Globe editorialists, headquartered as they are in distant Toronto, just don't know much about B.C., our politics, or our history.
Yet, on the same day as the Globe head-scratcher appeared in print, a Vancouver Sun editorial gushed that Campbell was "one of B.C.'s great leaders." And the Sun's opinion leaders actually reside in this province. Hmmm.
Less surprising was the morning-after-resignation paean by CKNW radio talk-show host Bill Good. Reciting a list of the premier's alleged feats, Good had the gumption to include the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, which was built without a business plan and at a cost $346 million higher than B.C. taxpayers had been promised. (Original budget: $495 million. Final bill: $841.2 million.)
Remarkable. Truly, Gordon Campbell must be one of the "great" ones.
Praise, but no proof
A closer look at the encomia for Campbell from the media elites reveals that their minority view is based almost entirely on his fiscal record.
The Sun praised Campbell's "sound fiscal management," and claimed that his efforts made British Columbia "a better place to live and work." The paper also stated that he had convinced investors that B.C. was "a great place to do business." No empirical evidence was offered to support any of these assertions.
The Globe took a similar path, but made the bizarre claim that Campbell had "transformed the province's finances." Again, not a jot nor a tittle of empirical proof was provided.
As for Good, he repeated the hoary myth that Campbell "took over a province that had achieved 'have-not' status under the NDP" and then restored it to greatness.
It actually is shocking how loathe are the mainstream media to undertake even a minimal amount of research -- especially when so much of B.C.'s fiscal information is readily available online or in public libraries. Would it have been so very difficult for the Globe, Sun or Good to spend even a few minutes analyzing Campbell's fiscal accomplishments before declaring that he belongs in the pantheon of B.C. "greats"?
Apparently, it is. And so The Tyee will boldly go where the mainstream media elites refuse to venture, and conduct an objective examination of B.C.'s fiscal performance from the spring of 2001, when Gordon Campbell became our province's 34th premier, to the spring of 2011, when he'll be replaced as leader of the BC Liberal party.
Where the facts reside
We'll primarily use two documents: the 2010 British Columbia Financial and Economic Review (70th edition), and the Campbell government's Budget and Fiscal Plan 2010/11 - 2012/13. Both are published by the Ministry of Finance.
The starting point for our analysis is March 31, 2001, the date that marked the end of the 2000/01 fiscal year. (Campbell's BC Liberals won election to government on May 16, 2001, and he was sworn in as premier on June 5.)
The end point is March 31, 2011 -- the end of the current fiscal year. (It is expected that the BC Liberal party will choose Campbell's successor some time in the spring of 2011.)
Now, some of our more-astute readers -- that is, those who don't work in the mainstream media -- will note that two important developments have taken place since the 2010/11 budget was published.
First, the province announced on Sept. 14 (in the first quarterly report for the year) that Ottawa had advised that corporate income tax receipts were going to be much higher than originally forecast. Corporate income tax revenues now are expected to hit $1.521 billion in fiscal 2010/11, an increase of $674 million over the budgeted number of $847 million.
Second, on Oct. 27, Campbell made a televised address to the province and announced a 15 per cent cut to personal income tax rates. The tax cut will cost the provincial treasury $568 million (or about 85 per cent of the windfall corporate income tax receipts) in the current fiscal year.
We'll start by looking at Victoria's revenues over the last 10 years, then review expenditures, deficits and debt, and conclude by examining B.C. as a "have-not" province.
Revenues grew slightly, but declined as proportion of BC's economy
The 2000/01 fiscal year ended with Victoria collecting tax revenues of $14.3 billion, while the 2010/11 budget calls for tax receipts of $17.4 billion (since boosted to $18.1 billion in the first quarterly report). The composition of taxation revenue changed considerably over the 10-year period.
Two of the biggest sources of tax receipts -- personal-income tax and corporate-income tax -- were surprisingly flat over the decade, given population growth of about 500,000 and inflation. The reason? The many and on-going tax cuts unveiled by Campbell since 2001.
PIT revenues slipped from $5.963 billion to $5.861 billion, while corporate-income tax revenues dropped from just over $1 billion to $847 million for the current year. (Again, the first quarterly report boosted the latter figure to $1.5 billion.)
Tax revenues from retail sales rose from $3.6 billion in 2000/01, to an expected $5.2 billion in 2010/11. The former figure was generated by the provincial sales tax (officially known as the Social Service Tax) alone, while the latter is an amalgam of the PST and the new (and much-hated) Harmonized Sales Tax, which replaced the PST on July 1.
One levy, the corporation capital tax, was whittled away to nothing under Campbell's stewardship, while a new one, the carbon tax, was introduced in 2008. The former generated $459 million in 2000/01, and zero in the current year; the latter is expected to produce $727 million in Campbell's last year in office.
The biggest gain in tax receipts over the decade was due to world-wide low interest rates, which sparked a housing boom (and bubble) in much of the western world. Property-transfer revenues totaled $262 million in our base year of 2000/01, and are expected to hit $900 million at the end of the current fiscal period.
In total, Victoria's tax receipts grew by just $3.1 billion (or $3.8 billion, based on the first quarterly report) while Gordon Campbell was premier. As a proportion of B.C.'s economy, provincial tax revenues fell from 10.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), to about 8.9 per cent.
Given that the 2010/11 budget estimates that B.C.'s GDP this year will hit $196.3 billion, the annual revenue lost to tax cuts is about $3.7 billion.
Explosion in federal transfers, MSP premiums and tuition
Natural resource revenues were surprisingly anemic -- given the boom in global commodity prices -- during Campbell's premiership. Ten years ago, forests revenues totaled over $1.3 billion and natural gas revenues were in excess of $1.2 billion. This year, however, forests are expected to generate a mere $491 million, while natural gas will produce just $698 million.
In total, natural resource receipts will have fallen from $4.0 billion in 2000/01, to $3.2 billion in the current fiscal year.
But even as Victoria's receipts from taxation and natural resources deteriorated or weakened over Gordon Campbell's decade in office, many other revenue sources showed surprising strength.
Foremost among them were transfers from the federal government. In 2000/01, Ottawa sent a mere $3.3 billion to British Columbia; in the current year that figure is expected to hit a whopping $7.7 billion.
As a proportion of the provincial economy, federal transfers under Campbell will have exploded from 2.5 per cent of GDP, to more than 3.9 per cent. Simply, Ottawa's largesse over the last decade has done much to replace provincial revenues lost to Campbell's persistent tax-cutting.
Crown corporation net income also has seen significant growth over the last decade, rising from $1.6 billion, to $3.0 billion.
The biggest gains originated from gaming profits at the BC Lottery Corp. (from $554 million to $1.1 billion); alcohol profits at the Liquor Distribution Branch (from $642 million to $974 million); and insurance profits at ICBC (from a loss of $14 million to net income of $303 million).
But the biggest revenue gains which offset the losses from Campbell's tax cuts were in two areas well-known to low and middle-income British Columbians -- Medical Services Plan premiums and post-secondary tuition.
In 2000/01, MSP premiums generated $894 million for the provincial treasury, but in the current year the comparable figure is expected to hit an eye-popping $1.741 billion.
And over the same period, tuition fees recovered from post-secondary students will have nearly tripled, from $440 million to $1.135 billion.
In total, provincial GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) revenues under Gordon Campbell will have grown from $29.689 billion in 2000/01, to $39.190 billion in the current fiscal period.
Yet, as a proportion of the B.C. economy, Victoria's revenues will have declined from 22.6 per cent of GDP, to just 20.0 per cent. Again, with provincial GDP expected to be $196.3 billion this year, that's a loss of about $5.1 billion.
Big declines in spending outside health, education and general government
Not surprisingly, even though Victoria's current-dollar spending rose under Campbell -- from $28.439 billion to $40.605 billion -- expenditures also will have fallen in relative terms. A decade ago, provincial spending represented 21.7 per cent of GDP, this year the comparable figure is pegged at 20.6 per cent.
Health spending under Campbell will have increased from $9.430 billion to $16.474 billion; education (K-12 and post-secondary), from $7.216 billion to $10.820 billion; and social services, from $3.214 billion to $3.454 billion.
These "big three" areas of government expenditure will have seen combined growth from 15.1 per cent of GDP in 2000, to 15.7 per cent in the current period.
Nearly every other area of Victoria's annual expenditure budget -- law enforcement and justice, economic development, transportation and the environment -- has declined over the last decade. One exception is "general government," which, under Campbell's leadership, has exploded from $435 million in 2000/01, to an estimated $1.376 billion in 2010/11.
Five surpluses, five shortfalls for premier who 'outlawed' deficits
Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals won election to government in 2001 with a pledge to "outlaw" budgetary deficits. Indeed, one of the first statutes passed by the new government was the Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act, although its ban on provincial deficits did not kick in until 2004.
And so the Campbell Liberals -- after "inheriting" a GAAP surplus in excess of $1.2 billion from the defeated New Democrats -- promptly racked-up shortfalls of $1 billion (in 2001/02), $2.6 billion (2002/03) and $1.2 billion (2003/04), before recording a succession of sizeable surpluses.
Over the four fiscal years between 2004/05 to 2007/08, the Campbell government had surpluses of $2.7 billion, $3.7 billion, $4.3 billion and $3.2 billion. A fifth, but much-smaller residue of $57 million appeared in 2008/09, but then the deficits reappeared.
Last year, 2009/10, saw a shortfall of $1.8 billion, and the current fiscal year is expected to end with another $1.8 billion (or $1.4 billion, according to the first quarterly report) deficit.
Gordon Campbell's record of surpluses and deficits? Five of the former, and five of the latter.
Capital spending exploded and debt soared
For much of B.C.'s history, Victoria's operating and capital expenditures were combined in the provincial budget. That changed in the late 1990s under the NDP, and was confirmed with the BC Liberals' implementation of GAAP.
Put simply, our provincial budgets capture 100 per cent of the government's annual operating outlays, but just a fraction of capital charges. It's become much-easier, in other words, to balance the budget when only some, not all, of the capital outlays are counted.
Not surprisingly, British Columbians have seen an explosion in capital spending under Gordon Campbell. In 2000/01, total capital expenditures added up to $3.3 billion; in the current fiscal period, $8.2 billion.
And so, despite the appearance of sizeable budget surpluses in the middle part of the past decade, B.C.'s debt has grown dramatically. Ten years ago, on the eve of Campbell's first election victory, total provincial debt stood at $33.788 billion. By the end of this fiscal year, the comparable number is expected to hit $47.757 billion.
The picture improves slightly when total provincial debt is measured as a proportion of the B.C. economy. In 2000/01, total provincial debt was 25.7 per cent of GDP; by next March, that number should be 24.3 per cent.
Campbell inherited surplus of $1.2 billion, leaves similar shortfall
This is Gordon Campbell's fiscal record. An objective observer might describe it as so-so: not egregiously awful (as was that of John Herbert Turner in the 1890s), but hardly stellar (as was John Hart's in the 1940s).
And yet the mainstream media elite gush and fawn and celebrate Campbell as one of the "greats."
They do so, of course, because they have dedicated years to denigrating the fiscal record of Campbell's predecessors; that is, the two New Democratic Party governments of the 1990s. Good gave away the game with his claim that Campbell inherited a "have-not" province in 2001.
What, exactly, is B.C.'s record as a recipient of equalization payments from Ottawa, the hallmark of "have-not" status?
In the 1980s, Social Credit governments led by Bill Bennett and Bill Vander Zalm received three special equalization payments from Ottawa. Bennett got the first such payment, for $139 million, in 1983/84, and a second for $35 million in 1984/85. Vander Zalm obtained $360,000 in 1986/87.
The NDP garnered a single equalization transfer, of $125 million, in 1999/2000.
Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals, in contrast, received five such payments: $158 million in 2001/02; $543 million in 2002/03; $979 million in 2004/05; $590 million in 2005/06; and $459 million in 2006/07. (So huge were these transfers, that B.C. actually had to re-pay an overpayment of $330 million in 2003/04.)
The New Democrats got a total of $125 million in equalization; Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals, a total of $2.4 billion. Which one did Good say made B.C. a "have-not" province?
In the end, there's one easy way to review Gordon Campbell's fiscal record. In 2001, when he became premier, Campbell "inherited" a $1.2 billion surplus from the defeated New Democrats. In 2011, when he bequeaths his office to his successor, he'll leave a shortfall of exactly the same size: $1.2 billion.
One of the giants? Did Gordon Campbell truly "transform" B.C.'s finances? Only if one lives in the fairly-tale, fantasy world of the mainstream media elites. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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- ...while on the streets, pirates and ninjas put aside mutual animosity to join student protests
83
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Okanagan Orchardist
1 year ago
An astute accounting..
An astute accounting of the Campbell era. Well done, Will.
G West
1 year ago
Thanks once again Will McMartin
We know the media generally aren't prepared to make the CEO's long goodbye anything but a love in - thank heaven for you and the Tyee...
BC is a have-not province in more ways than one - in fact, it is 'have-not' in the most fundamental sense that we have nobody in the Main Stream Media who DON'T SEEM TO GET THEIR MARCHING ORDERS FROM THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS BUREAU OR THE FRASER INSTITUTE.
crh
1 year ago
not mentioned here is
that Campbell had a world economic boom under his watch. Easy money that comes oh so rarely and he managed to do nothing with it but spend it all on his pet capital projects. Funny how (according to MSM) this easy money is his doing.....but when times are tough, not his fault!
Grumpy
1 year ago
The PAB also inclues.......
Bill Boring and the Vancouver Sun.
It is the wing-nut blogosphere that has shone the light of truth on Campbell and his cronies and it was the intrepid bloggists that have shown Liberal lick spittles that infest the mainstream media.
Want the real news, read the Tyee and the many blogs of political opinion, not the Fraser Institute controlled Vancouver Sun and Brand-X radio.
seth
1 year ago
Real Debt
To the $48B 2011 on the books provincial debt Will forget to mention the $50B in off the books and carefully hidden 3 P (shadow tolls) and IPP obligations that Canwest Gordo signed us up for.
He tripled the provinces debt!!!!
It's impossible to get the exact amount because that data is now "private" business information.
jimmy_laroux
1 year ago
What BC's *real* debt?
No mention of the ~10 billion dollars of debt Campbell hid in P3s? No mention of the 20+ billion dollars of electricity purchase agreements Campbell forced BC Hydro to sign?
jimmy_laroux
1 year ago
@ seth
You beat me to it :-) Great minds...
Camero409
1 year ago
Will,... you did it again!
What an insiteful needle to balloon article. I think I'll forward this to Good at CKNW and the rest of the newspaper nincompoops.
Once we have a REAL government vs a corporate sponsored government we will then find all the hidden shadow tolls and interest paid back to CN through a shadowy sale of BC Rail.
The Persuasive one
1 year ago
The Numbers King Strikes Again......
I guess it pays dividends to hire wives,sons, daughters, and relatives of media and put them in the PAB...
Sean Leslie`s wife works for PAB..Keith Baldrey`s wife...How many more, I have heard no fewer than a dozen close relations with the mainstream media work for PAB...
Vancouver Sun/Bill Good/Cluck cluck/Global...
Yellow Journalism....
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2010/10/vancouver-sun-home-of-yellow-journalism.html
Cool Hand
1 year ago
Some Quibbles
1. The $1.551 budget surplus ending March 31, 2001 was as a result of non-GAAP "natural gas revenues" coming in ~$1.2 billion over estimated figures;
2. Those natural gas revenues increased as a result of Dan Miller's tax credit package or "subsidies" to the natural gas industry, which the NDP now pledges to remove; Ergo a much lower revenue stream with today's NDP policy;
3. The NDP set up the BC Transportation Authority (a crown corp.) in order to place capital expenditures "off books", which made the bottom line deficit figures look considerably better;
4. Due to the change to GAAP accounting, natural gas revenue (bonus bids/drilling licenses) has "Deferred Revenue" in the amount of $4.389 billion ending March 31, 2010. IOW, the money's in the bank but it can't yet be counted toward the bottom line.
5. Natural gas royalties came in $908 million less than estimated ending March 31, 2010 due to weakness in prices; Again with NDP policy of removing the three directed tax credit programs that industry will crash;
6. A "Have" Province sends more tax money to Ottawa that it receives back in transfer payments. It's the other way around with a "Have Not" Province;
7. Under every single economic indicator, be it GDP/capita, income per capita, disposable income per capita, investment, private sector employment, etc. BC under-performed the rest of Canada during the 1990's. Post- 2001 that was reversed.
Otherwise, good piece Will. BTW, why did you and left-wing economist Iglika Ivanova from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives prepare a paper for the BC Federation of Labour recommending that the BC government should increase public spending by ~$4.5 billion/ year?
You do know that will not fly politically (with corresponding tax increases) in today's Vander Zalm, anti-tax, Tea Party, political climate?
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/ccpabc_shrinking_public_sector.pdf
Gary
1 year ago
Pass the word
Well done Will
The last time Will did a piece on Campbells financing I passed the link on to some people involved with me in fighting the HST.
At a recent meeting one couple , who had now become regular Tyee readers, asked me why this information doesn't come out in the Main Strean Media. They had no idea that this BS was going on.
With this column I have sent the link to everyone on my mailing list and asked them to forward it to their lists.
It's time the people were awakened
DPL
1 year ago
The province has done badly
The province has done badly with King Gordo in charge, and many people still recite the mantra. NDP Bad Gordo great as the provincial debt rises. Good article as usual from someone who actually reads the numbers.
jacksonupnorth
1 year ago
Gordo's dictatorship
Gordon Campbell claimed credit for things that he was not responsible for. He has sucked every dollar he could get out of the booming oil/gas industry in Northeast BC. It has been at great expense to the environment which he could care less about. Does he think that if someone else would have been in power that BC would not have made money from the oil/gas royalties. Although no one could be as bad as Scampbell I really hope that his replacement will realize that the people and the environment in the north need protection.
Fiat lux
1 year ago
So called "conservative
So called "conservative fiscal managers" always leave huge debt loads on the public, while piling benefits on special interests.
The arch conservative, privatizing, Reagan incurred more debt on the books than all the US Presidents before him.
Mulroney wasn't much better. Vander Zalm's privatization idiocies, like the highways, have left us with atrocious road conditions, etc.
Besides....investments are a form of debt the public has to pay back and foreign investments should be accounted as part of the national debt.
Apart from the fact that foreign investors bring nothing more than imaginary money to take control of resources, against which domestic money could be legally "created" for necessary development purposes, for the public's, and not the investors' benefit.
Ed Deak.
The Persuasive one
1 year ago
Good work Gary....
That is the difference Gary...BC leads the nation with the percentage of citizens who are on line..78% of all BCers are on line...Every year that number goes up...
The internet killed Tesako mine...The internet killed Paul Taylor and Naikun wind power...
PAB press releases don`t cut it anymore...
The PAB press releases and Mainstream media stories continually get churned out but...
But now none of those stories get legs unless the internet and bloggers confirm the stories...That`s the difference, at one time Bloggers were ignored, now bloggers are the truth detectors...
It`s the bloggers that define what is news, or more importantly, it`s the bloggers that confirm the stories, without that confirmation PAB press releases die on the vine...
Nothing pleases me more than baby boomers one by one discovering the scale of lies that have been foisted on them by the MSM...
The genie is out of the bottle and he he ain`t going back....
Cool Hand [OFFENSIVE COMMENT REMOVED. -MODERATOR.] ....Perhaps you can create a new blog dedicated to attacking Will McMartin...
Or perhaps your talent and original thought is limited to pictures of wrongway feldman and talk of beer...
[OFFENSIVE COMMENT REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]
Dianne who?
bcnaiad
1 year ago
Prime Minister Campbell?
Is it just me, or does anyone else think they're grooming Campbell as a future Prime Minister. I don't think it's a mistake that they invited "Prime Minister" Campbell to the Bildeberg meeting this year. I don't think that was a typo.
The east doesn't pay much attention to western politics. Campbell looks good for the camera, especially with those studious looking glasses. Not to mention he does everything that the "elite" could want.
"A Jan. 11 invitation letter marked "personal and confidential" to "Prime Minister Gordon Campbell" was signed by Bilderberg honorary chairman Etienne Davignon"
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2010/08/11/BilderbergExposed/
Skywalker
1 year ago
Excellent Will!
I wonder if the folks in the MSM can even read this much. They probably will need some liberal hack to distill it for them so they can come up with a few Quibbles. Well done Will!!
Fiat lux
1 year ago
I don't think Campbell would
I don't think Campbell would be interested being a PM, with all the directorships and big money waiting for him, as Carole Taylor was rewarded.
Ed Deak.
Matt T.
1 year ago
Persuasive One
Are you talking about this blog? Is that you?
http://briangough.blogspot.com/
Are you talking about Brad Zubyk? What's he got to do with it?
Will McMartin, another excellent financial sysnposis. Why doesn't the NDP or the MSM ever bring these matters up?
Okanagan Orchardist
1 year ago
To bcnaiad' comment...
Regarding your blog on Campbell and the Bilderberg Group…
I wouldn’t think that Campbell has a hope in Hades of ever being selected to join the Bilderberg Group. He may be asked to join a few BC company directorships, but that would be as far as he goes. I think by now everyone has seen through his capacity as a manager or economic advisor.
The latest book on the Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin, lists a number of North American members, including Alberta’s Peter Lougheed; Bill Graham, former leader of the Opposition in Ottawa; Ron Southern, of Calgary’s ATCO Group; Roy MacLaren, former Commission to the UK; John MacNaughton, from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board; Allan Gotlieb, former Can. Ambassador to the US; Wendy Dobson, former Deputy Minister of Finance (Can);and, among a few more, Arthur DeFehr of Palliser Furniture, Winnipeg (this is unbelievable for a Mennonite--but he does have pull in that province). Campbell would have nothing in common with this group, let alone the infamous Carlyle Group, most of whose executive are Bilderberg members. I understand J. Patterson ( a Campbell advocate) once attended a meeting of the B. Group, but never joined.
jimmy_laroux
1 year ago
@ Cool Hand
If this is true (and considering the source, I’m sceptical), so what?
This is a lie, and not a very smart one. The expenditures were never “off books” in any way whatsoever.
Another lie. In fact in 2000 BC had the fourth highest real GDP per capita. After ten years of Liberal rule it is now fifth in Canada. BC had the second lowest per capita real GDP growth in 2007 and 2008. BC has also become less productive compared with the rest of Canada. As for real per capita disposable income BC was third in 2000, and is still third as of 2008.
To quote McMartin, “under GAAP, just a fraction of capital outlays are counted toward the annual budgetary surplus or deficit.” The revenue (e.g. oil and gas drilling rights) and expenses must be treated the same, and amortized. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Why should that be the case?
bcnaiad
1 year ago
OK Orchardist......Cambell did attend 2010 Bilderberg meeting
According to this straight article and the tyee link I added to my post, Gordo did attend the 2010 Bilderberg meeting. I don't have a blog....just posted a comment.
http://www.straight.com/article-327416/vancouver/leaked-list-suggests-premier-gordon-campbell-bilderberg-2010-meetings
MGS
1 year ago
Censorship!
I just made a couple of posts to the cbc vancouver site on the article regarding Carol James problems being elected.
The first comment I posted referred to Will McMartins article on the tyee.ca.
It didn't get posted!
Ya think they are maybe afraid of something and maybe patronizing a certain political party over there????
THE TYEE NEEDS TO ADVERTISE AS TO MANY PEOPLE I'VE TALKED TO HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT!
Waltz
1 year ago
Setting the Campbell record straight
Thanks for this analysis. The Tyee has become my main source of BC news and commentary.
Don't worry, the mainstream media in Canada have been digging their grave for the past 15 years and their irrelevant carcasses are now falling into it.
This year, I stopped reading the Globe and Mail and after decades of listening to the CBC I have switched off and tuned into European and New York stations for radio and the arts.
morechatter
1 year ago
Prime Minister Campbell
Where do you get this stuff you can't run for prime minister when you can't get the people of the province to vote for you now can you?
Yvone
1 year ago
the mainstream media and political donations
I think that the reason the mainstream media persist in trying to support the Provincial Liberals has to to with the fact that the companies that own all the mainstream media in BC all make large political donations to the Liberals. Go to the Elections BC website: Glacier media, which owns all the smaller city newspapers, donated about $100,000 to the Liberals last year. Similar for the parent co. of the Province/Sun newspapers, Global media, etc. So this article comes as absolutely no surprise, the bias of the mainstream media in favor of the Liberals has been obvious for over a decade now.
mcdull
1 year ago
Bill Boring
Yes he and the rest at NW just keep cheering the policies that have hurt the rest of BC. Just like his interview with John Les this morning . Boring said that the blogs were mostly lies nd misinformation. Man the hypocracy. Then saying that Les could have his PRO HST crap pushed for free as often as he could get on the show . Well that is just totally biased and bad policy. Another reason I'm not a fan of NW. Yes and letting Steve on every time to tell us how great the HST is for his business well what about the rest of us don't we count. Not to the cheerleaders on NW.
Luck
1 year ago
no use crying over spilt milk ..................
YOU ALL GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR RIGHT.
ONLY 37% OF BC VOTES. THIS IS DUMB EH.
GET OUT AND VOTE, IT JUST MAY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.
APATHY SUCKS AND YOU ALL CAN NOT SEE IT.
YOU ALL WHO VOTED FOR GORDO KNEW HE HAD NO PEOPLE SKILLS AND WOULD NOT LISTEN TO ANYBODY.
HE CREATED UNRECORDED DEBT, SOLD CROWN JEWELS AND CREATED A PROVINCIAL DEBT WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PAY OFF EVER.
HE SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE MONEY DURING THE BIGGEST DEPRESSION EVER WORLD WIDE BUT FAILED TO ACT IN INDIA AND CHINA LIKE OBAMA.
FOR THOSE WHO SAY HE DID THE BEST HE COULD ARE IN DENIAL.
WE NEED A THIRD PARTY, HOPEFULLY THE CONSERVATIVES WILL FOLLOW THRU AND CREATE SOME MORE LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES.
I BET IF THEY DO WE WILL SEE SOME GOOD PEOPLE COME UP THE MIDDLE AND HAVE A DECENT PARTY WORK FOR THE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF AGAINST.
OH PEOPLE OF BC WAKE UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY IF YOU CARE.
GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR FUTURE OF THIS BC OF OURS.
REMEMBER,GET OUT AND VOTE IN BYELECTIONS AND 2013.
LETS ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS TIME FOR THE GOOD.
JUST DO IT.
Van Isle
1 year ago
The media has been covering
The media has been covering upfor Gordo and his shenenigans when he was the Mayor of Vancouver.
Raedwulf
1 year ago
Campbell made war on the poor
From 2000 to 2005 saw a decrease of 3.4% in the BC Median wage, the measure of real wages for the average worker. The only other province that saw a decrease was Quebec but it was under .5%. The Campbell decade saw the median family income remain below the Canadian average. Add in the MSP premium increase, and the huge increase in post secondary tuition, and the refusal to increase the minimum wage. Oh, we better not forget the substantial decrease in benefits he forced on the public service pensioners, and the number of services he cut, particularily women's services. It was mostly women affected by the contracts he tore up.
The Campbell years amounted to a continuous war on the poor.
Conductor274
1 year ago
Campbell runs a Conservative coalition
Campbell's career has been built on a lie right from the start. He is not nor was he ever a Liberal. When you examine his actions and policies it's apparent that he's a Conservative. That's why he gets along so well with Harper. But Harper's admiration for Campbell is puzzling. Campbell's party is made of ex Socreds, wanna be Conservatives and some right wing Liberals. That's a coalition government! Isn't that the big political boogy man in Harper's world? Coalitions are bad for the country aren't they?
DS Johannson
1 year ago
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Emperor’s New Clothes meets Yertle the Turtle: Much of Gordon Campbell’s reign has been under the auspice of the mainstream media/media elite which many British Columbians have known for a decade! I tuned out and turned off CKNW seven years ago. I watched one segment of CTV News with Bill Good, about four years ago. Sadly, even with an abysmal 9% support rate, given the audience size of the mainstream media in British Columbia, the majority of people in British Columbia may very well be led to believe the manufactured and fabricated history of Premier Gordon Campbell being inflicted upon them – unless...
jnewcomb
1 year ago
govt costs going up - nothing to show for it?
All those increases in the big three of health, education and social services, but nothing extra to show for it? Same problem with the last BC NDP government - the increases disappear into invisible holes somewhere in the departments.
"Health spending under Campbell will have increased from $9.430 billion to $16.474 billion; education (K-12 and post-secondary), from $7.216 billion to $10.820 billion; and social services, from $3.214 billion to $3.454 billion."
loriw
1 year ago
welcome home
Just got back in the country after six weeks away and was completely floored with the Gordon Campbell farewell-love fest.
SO glad Will is still in the saddle!
A Dave
1 year ago
corporate profits never trickled down
What about the “BC is Open for Business” mantra, what exactly has improved?
Well, Stats Can data for The Golden Decade shows that, despite Campbell’s relentless corporate tax concessions beginning in 2001 -- all of which were supposed to spur investment and spending by corporations, and create spin-off jobs and economic activity that would benefit our province and trickle down – the reality is BC has lagged behind the Canadian average in Capital Investment and Investment Intensity virtually EVERY YEAR since Campbell took over.
In other words, Campbell’s key economic policies did not work. No matter how many times the MSM shills repeat the lie that he was a good fiscal manager, it still won’t be true.
According to Stats Can, the only measurable difference that occurred under Campbell is that corporations operating in BC have soared ahead of the rest of Canada in terms of CORPORATE PROFITABILITY, by a whopping 2.5 TIMES THE NATIONAL AVERAGE.
These companies have simply taken the tax savings and pocketed the windfall. They have not reinvested, have not created jobs, have not produced any trickle down effects, and have not helped BC’s bottom line.
We have lost that tax revenue, and now are hamstrung and running up huge deficits that will cost future generations.
The justification for corporate concessions and promises of economic prosperity that will trickle down is, of course, the exact same justification being used for the HST. Problem is, it hasn't worked over the last 10 years, and there is no evidence to suggest that the HST will provide any trickle down benefits in the future either. It is an economic policy built on wishful thinking, not tested facts or historical evidence.
In the US, some jurisdictions are tying corporate tax cuts directly to investment and job creation. If the company does not reinvest X amount of $$ or create X number of jobs, they have to pay back the money. That's forcing companies to be responsible corporate citizens, because history has proven that they will most often just pocket the money and run. Unfortunately, under Campbell lack of accountability and irresponsible stewardship has become the norm.
Gordon Campbell one of the great premiers? Pffft. The numbers prove that he was likely the most incompetent and foolish fiscal manager we have ever had leading our province, and the damage he did will harm us for many years to come.
Like the MSM that sings his praises, he is nothing more than a discredited corporate shill whose power and influence diminishes with each passing day.
Frank
1 year ago
jnewcomb
Sounds like you missed Will's column last week?
"At the beginning of the decade, Victoria's health spending on a per capita basis was 9.7 per cent above the national average. By 2005 B.C. had slipped to slightly under the national average, and in 2010, we will be 4.1 per cent below the country as a whole."
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/11/02/FaultyPrescription/
realisticman
1 year ago
Will
"Natural resource revenues were surprisingly anemic -- given the boom in global commodity prices -- during Campbell's premiership."
Errr. Say what?
"Perhaps you missed the crash of '08 when everything ground to a halt. The Baltic Dry Index on 20 May 2008 reached its record high level since its introduction in 1985, reaching 11,793 points. Half a year later, on 5 December 2008, the index had dropped by 94%, to 663 points, the lowest since 1986"
Wiki
Good that Campbell was there to obtain those transfers from Ottawa. Since you point out that the NDP was unable to get transfers, except on one occasion, we must suppose that this will happen again if they get power. Campbell's Liberals received over $2 billion more than the last NDP rein. We must remember this when we go to the ballot box.
Frank
1 year ago
r'man
That's a funny post :)
For a better world
1 year ago
Bill Good has never had a balanced view
Another great analysis Mr. McMartin!
Billy "Silverspoons" at NW has never provided a balanced perspective. To this day Billy remains angry with the CBC, because when he became the local news anchor, CBC would not let him be the public voice for his daddy's clients (Export A, Brown Bros.). It was really nice of daddy to co-ordinate a media position for him, even though he had'nt graduated from high school. Nepotism, don't you love it!
He also lobbied to have CTV take over CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada"(HNIC). He objected to revenue being paid to a public broadcaster for airing HNIC.
As the moderator for the debate between Campbell and James prior to the last election, his bias towards the Liberals prevailed. Although Carole James did not enamour herself well, Good's predetermined jibes and body language against her were obviously negative. His unmistakable sucking up to Bill "The Inside Trader" Bennett was also nauseatingly obvious.
SharingIsGood
1 year ago
Thanks for bringing forth this unbiased article, Will
For as long as I have lived in BC, it has felt as though the MSM has been at odds with the average working person - especially these last 25 years! It has been this way since Reagan, Muroney and Thatcher. In the last 15 years (but especially during Harper's regime), even the CBC has capitulated to bless the goals of the extremely wealthy and major corporations.
One can expect little less from a neutered CBC that's been dealt budget cut after budget cut. We must remember that CBC's own Peter Mansbridge attended the 2010 Biderberg conference. What kind of a news anchor goes to a conference stacked to the rafters with a number of the world's most powerful people and doesn't tell the public what it was about? What kind of a newsperson is that? His duty as the number one newsperson of a taxpayer-owned organization has to be toward the taxpayers. And, what kind of a premier (Gordon Campbell while in our employ) attends and utters not a peep about what was discussed? Again, as BC citizens are paying the premier's salary; one would surmize we have a right to know. His has a sworn duty to BC citizens. Remember, it was Gordon Campbell who promised the most open and accountable government, ever.
Yes, the BC Liberals are financed by wealthy individuals and by corporate profits. Those tax-deductible donations are profits that could have been used to improve wages and benefits for workers. Those are monies that could have been spent on the poor or health care or education. Instead, the MSM (Big Business) continues to forego the interests of the their reader/listener/viewers for a few pieces of silver. For me, it has gotten so bad that it feels like war. They may as well be raining down leaflets telling me it is time to give up and we are doomed unless we acquiesce. Citizen Kane's propaganda machine is our own, and it wages war against us. I can't imagine how low one must feel to work for MSM.
The people of BC owe independent bloggers and the Tyee boodles of gratitude. Thank you, Tyee and Will McMartin! Please keep up the fight!
SIG
Driftwood
1 year ago
You're right Fiat
"Apart from the fact that foreign investors bring nothing more than imaginary money to take control of resources, against which domestic money could be legally "created" for necessary development purposes, for the public's, and not the investors' benefit."
Yes. The money the fed creates in the US for example, is just created out of thin air. By private banks to lend at profit and you can see the result in the massive indebtedness which drives the average Joe like you and I to actually work like hell for a good portion of the six months of the year we spend working to pay taxes in working to pay interest on our 'debt.'
Thing is, we the country actually have something to borrow against - our resources and our skills - so we should be the ones (the only ones) creating money to finance development, infrastructure etc.
And we did until 1974. The bank of Canada (federally owned by the government) created money to finance Medicare. It worked well, inflation was way less than it is now (inflation is a tax on people who leave their money in the bank) medical services were more inclusive and the tax on all the money borrowed went right back to the bank of Canada. Which is to say it went right back to the Canadian government to the betterment of the Canadian way of life.
I ask you why can't BC have a bank of its own to finance all government debt? You think people wouldn't put their money there when they knew that the interest and fees paid would go right back to BC? Of course they would.
It would have to be set up as a Crown corporation with a charter to protect the interests of the people of BC so that people like the current crop of neocannibals in power couldn't 'tweak' it for their own benefit.
Could it work? Well it certainly has in history whenever private bankers don't have us lashed down in the pouring rain of despicable labour while they take their cut right off the best part of our lives.
Driftwood
1 year ago
Web of Debt
Read "Web of Debt" by Ellen H. Brown for correct information about State owned banks. (Google her name for articles by her on this same subject.)
"There is every reason for taxpayers to demand and get a state owned bank in every state. The key issue is that all state revenue would be deposited in the state bank and all state debts would be paid by the state bank. Thus the interest earned by the state money would accrue to the state instead of being given away to a private firm. The bank would otherwise function like any other bank in making loans to the state, individuals, companies, and other banks. All this would be a great boost for state income and a great reduction in state costs. Of course, you may expect bankers to fight this tooth and nail for obvious reasons..."
brg61
1 year ago
unanswered questions
Campbell's legacy will remain stained by so many unresolved issues. This is a direct result of mainstream media's failure to ask questions that they would demand of any other politician.
demeter
1 year ago
mainstream media?
Let me add my voice of thanks to Will McMartin, for telling it like it is.
Once again, The Tyee proves that it is BC's "Realstream Media" of choice.
Okanagan Orchardist
1 year ago
A Bank of BC and Bilderberg Meetings....
Driftwood suggested a Bank of BC --- those of us who invested in BRIC shares wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole.
And about Campbell and Peter Mansbridge attending a Bilderberg meeting -- all attendees are sworn to secrecy as to what is discussed at these meetings. If you valued your life you would keep your mouth shut.
DNA
1 year ago
Neither party has a vision
Thanks, Will, for a thorough analysis, and thanks, Cool Hand, for contributing.
I don't think either political party has given us a realistic economic plan for the province - a vision of how we are to prosper over the next few decades.
Actually, we haven't had an economic vision since the days of WAC Bennett, whose mission was to open up the Interior of the province with his dams, the railway, and encouraging mines and forest companies. That was fine, I guess, for the 1950s and 1960s. His son Bill Bennett continued that with the Coquihalla, the coal mines, and Expo (for tourism). By the 1970s and early 1980s, that policy of "draining the BC goblet" was getting old.
Campbell and his party instituted a low tax policy - especially for business, and for higher income people whose talents, supposedly, will create our wealth. Transferring a portion of the tax burden from the PST - of which business had to pay some - onto the HST - which the consumer has to pay all - did Campell in.
There have been some tourism initiatives under the BC Liberals - the Winter Olympics (initiated by the NDP), the convention centre, the highway to Whistler. They have paid some attention to the Port, along with the feds. That's supposedly why we have the Gateway projects (which I don't think will help the Port that much in the end). YVR has been expanded, but that's the federal government's initiative almost exclusively. What worries me is that transportation currently depends on relatively cheap oil, and I don't think that's the future.
But in the main the Liberals left most of their economic policy to tax policy - lowering taxes on business - which of course explains why the big media's corporate bosses like him. But unless you believe that the "free market" will solve all your economic problems, that's not a economic vision.
Unfortunately, I don't see much of an economic plan coming out of the NDP either. Glen Clark did try to create a shipbuilding industry but took on too much risk and got burned politically - governments, I think, should build infrastructure and let the private sector do the gambling. Instead, the NDP's focus seems primarily to be on repairing the damage to social programs that the parties of business inevitably do. That's great, but it's not a long-term economic plan and vision that this province really needs!
To get any party to think long-term though is very difficult.
jshayler
1 year ago
Will McMartin on Gordon Campbell
It is refreshing the directness of Will McMartin's critique of the Campbell Government's economic record. Both is candor and his fine research should be commended. I wonder how the NDP would fare if they took the same bold and thoughtful approach to its role in opposition that McMartin and others take to their role of exposing the truth.
Colleen Doty
1 year ago
Great Article
Thanks, Will, for the analysis. Well done!
jshayler
1 year ago
Will McMartin on Gordon Campbell
It is refreshing the directness of Will McMartin's critique of the Campbell Government's economic record. Both is candor and his fine research should be commended. I wonder how the NDP would fare if they took the same bold and thoughtful approach to its role in opposition that McMartin and others take to their role of exposing the truth.
jeffc
1 year ago
a further disaster
Another Liberal Party disaster was the stealthy redirection of gaming monies away from the arts and recreation communities and into what appears to be general revenue. Soon it might be expected that the viability of schools and hospitals will be expressly tied to the further expansion of gaming in the province.
realisticman
1 year ago
Frank
Your quote about spending per capita in BC is going to the bottom is really funny because BCers live longer than anyone else.
"From 2005 to 2007, people in British Columbia showed the longest life expectancy at birth in Canada at 81.2"
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/02/23/life-expectancy-canada.html#ixzz14kOodFlM
What are we doing wrong, or is it right?
Norman Farrell
1 year ago
Excellent work, again by McMartin
Bush #43 left this particular pearl of wisdom, among many:
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
Of course, the thing repeated over and over and over again by government supporters in British Columbia is the assertion that Gordon Campbell "transformed the province's finances."
Left unsaid though is that the transformation rewarded the wealthiest citizens and penalized the poorest.
From Northern Insights / Perceptivity
Norman Farrell
1 year ago
BC's economic leadership in another area
Liberal spokesperson Cool Hand offered this:
7. Under every single economic indicator, be it GDP/capita, income per capita, disposable income per capita, investment, private sector employment, etc. BC under-performed the rest of Canada during the 1990's. Post- 2001 that was reversed.
BC also leads Canada in income disparity between the top and bottom 20%. Not only that, our rate of change, worsening of course, is accelerating beyond the rates of other provinces.
http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2010/11/striking-it-richer.html
Romeogolf
1 year ago
Gambling with Healthcare
jeffc, I remember a few years ago being in the hospital and my father buying a lottery ticket at a kiosk there. I though it would be just a matter of time under this regime that we would see casinos in hospitals.
Romeogolf
1 year ago
Death of Editorial Integrity
"Is it ironic, or just plain weird, that while only nine per cent of British Columbians currently hold a positive view of Gordon Campbell, close to 100 per cent of the mainstream media remain deeply infatuated with our soon-to-be ex-premier?"
Is it any coincidence that newspaper circulation is plummeting?
RickW
1 year ago
Psst!
Has anyone told the Fraser Institute to read Will's piece? I am sure that, if it did, it could easily counter Will's "absurd" facts -- couldn't it?
CanadianLatitude
1 year ago
Where do you get this stuff
Where do you get this stuff you can't run for prime minister when you can't get the people of the province to vote for you now can you?
=========
Do you seriously believe that? He would win Vancouver Quadra quite easily. He will be a future lib or more than likely con PM after Harper. Most that go to Bilderberg usually get a career boost.
gsmonks
1 year ago
Praise for Will McMartin
As an ex-patriot BCer who left BC in disgust, it's good to see someone standing up to the province's incestuous politics and media. Those who support Campbell aren't affected by his actions- and this was also true of Socred leaders of the past. They're like the little buddy of a thug, with master-borrowed bravery, and a blind eye to the trail of casualties left behind.
Frank
1 year ago
r'man
I'm sure that would be because BC kept up its healthcare spending per capita under the NDP in the 1990s while most of the other provinces saw their healthcare cut in the face of Martin's federal cuts.
Or you can believe that the decrease in per capita spending in BC under the Liberals has made people healthier.
I'm going to go with logic on this one, you're free to stay with wishful thinking :)
Logic will set you free.
Spiritlifter
1 year ago
Control the media...
Control the people...
realisticman
1 year ago
Frank
The study clearly shows that life expectancy in BC increased to the highest in Canada under the NC Liberals (2005-2007). Throwing more money at it does not result in better health, no matter what you might like to dream.
realisticman
1 year ago
That should, of course, be BC Liberals.
not NC
RickW
1 year ago
R/M old man....
Yes, it would be. But surely you know the effects are quite often delayed.
It's not much different than the BC Liberals taking credit for the plans implemented by the NDP in the 90's, for BC's economic boom in the following the decade.
Frank
1 year ago
r'man
But BC did "throw more money at it" than other provinces.
We didn't have Klein and Harris slashing healthcare, we instead had Clark running a higher deficit to offset Martin's cuts.
Looks like it paid off, and I imagine you will be thanking Glen Clark for BC having a healthier population than other provinces?
Vox.Pop
1 year ago
Campbell's "Investment"
It's not a coincidence that the huge increase in the capital budget under King Campbell was mainly in the construction area. These expenditures can always (BC Place roof?) seem to be justified. But this was KC's home turf before he got into politics & it has been the main source of political contributions to right-wing pols at both the provincial & municipal level.
realisticman
1 year ago
Ha!
and if your guys get in next time and it all goes tits-up like it did in the 90s you'll be blaming - Campbell. Cute.
Frank
1 year ago
r'man
You already know that the economy was better in the 1990s for regular people and services were better too.
Things went "tits up" under Campbell which is why we have massive debt, lower wages, a poorer standard of living, deteriorating healthcare and so on.
But of course Campbell isn't responsible for any of that is he?
dave49
1 year ago
Some of the high points are meaningless - low corp. taxes
Some of the 'high points' of Campbell's time in office are meaningless, such as "lowest corporate income tax in the country". But still, almost no head offices. In fact, according to someone with long experience in the advertising industry, ad buys in the Vancouver market have dropped by 50% over the last 10 to 15 years.
I saw Garth Turner's talk in late September. Of Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, Calgary has the highest average income, followed by Toronto, with Vancouver last. Yet our real estate prices are the highest, so Vancouver's UNAFFORDABILITY rating is the highest. So, no wonder no companies and corporations want to locate here. Their workers can not afford decent housing.
So, we merrily evolve into resort-style (think giant Whistler), real estate economy. This economy is still driven by offshore money, especially the new rich of Mainland China. According to one story I heard, they are being driven around in a mini-bus, telling the real estate agent, "I want that one." If I were religious, I'd say, "Heaven help us all."
editingfool
1 year ago
take that, campbell apologists!!
will 'the emperor has no clothes,'mcmartin, the voice of sanity...thank you.
when i think of the endless days of crucifixion that clark endured at the hands of the mainstream media, this current attitude towards campbell simply repulses me.
a lot of folks are just NOT doing their jobs.
Skywalker
1 year ago
"tits up" for R/man is just great for the rest of us.
You notice that after all the numbers based analysis of Will's piece and the rebuttal to the notion that the 90's were "the lost decade" you still have R/man with his last post claiming everything will go "tits up like the last time." I think if it does go that way then it will go that way for all those who have been on the backs of most of British Columbians for all of Campbell's term. That would be a really good thing. Just because it goes "tits up" for R/man is not bad at all.
Hunter Mars
1 year ago
Propaganda Reins Supreme
BS piled this deep can only be created by the MSM .
He's gone Klowns and he ain't coming back .
Spin any faster and your melons will come flying off .
Used to be ethics in journalism before it became another tentacle of Entertainment Tonight .
I was ROTFLMAO at the praise heaped on Clamhole's shoulders .
Truly bizarre .
Quit suck holing you misfits .
John W. Whitmore
1 year ago
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
My first impression of Mr Campbell were not good ones. My last impression did not go up much.
Mr McMartin, your article speaks loudly of the problems we have going forward. Big Problems. And not the ones the pretty picture you painted with numbers suggest.
From the article header to the basic theme you painted an article that smacks of a Republican style attack add.
Just like Mr Campbell.
I think you are playing to a base, wrapping yourself with robes adorned with select gems called numbers. Standing at the altar to administer upon the loyal troopers their salt payment. Nothing at all with the real and difficult problems that face this great province.
Just like Mr Campbell.
The main theme I takeaway from the article is you believe Mr Campbells worst accomplishment is that taxation as a percentage of overall provincial economic activity has shrunk.
Feel free to call me stupid. But is that not what we want? Increase the tax base by creating the conditions for economic expansion? More people hired and working? Generating the economic activity we need? So that when we, the government, when we take money to meet real and pressing needs the cost is minimized to all who live here.
Government has no money of its own. It requires moral and if necesary physical force, to obtain that money it needs. From us.
At least we have learned to live in a democracy. And can have some say in how that money is spent.
Can we not just once drop the party labels. And discuss things. Without rhetorical spin.
Populisim is the problem. Its the source of political correctness, short term thinking, No Money down, no sacrifice, no vision of the future. Preach only to the converted. Play only to the base.
And thats my problem with the article. Its easy to sell to those who want to buy. Its considerably harder to make those who hate your product want to change their minds.
JWW
Or should we play to our electoral base in order to gain power, by any and all means,
Populisim will get those you support elected. It will do nothing
And that it would be a good thing to seize more of the income of those who live here.
For the glory
Skywalker
1 year ago
Whitmore
You offer nothing in the way of facts in rebuttal to anything written by Will McMartin. An attack ad? Give me a effing break. Since when are the relevant facts presented logically an attack ad. Attack ads don't provide any support for a conclusion reached and whatever facts used are distorted. Who ever heard such nonsense as speaking the truth was interpreted as "nothing at all with the real and difficult problems facing this great province." If we don't expose the lies and the misconceptions how do we get to the second step in the problem solving process? We don't, that is why you comment makes no sense.
Are you suggesting, which is what the BC Liberals want, that we sugar coat the past so we can repeat the same thing all over again? But hey, let's never forget the myths about the 90's.
Driftwood
1 year ago
Um... about the BRIC shares
I think we should remember that was created by the Socred government and run by hired private business types. Had it been protected by a charter so that people like that couldn't get at it to make those horrible mistakes, just think what it would be worth today! Alas, Jimmy got a truckload of companies for pennies on the dollar.
Just to recap, BRIC was Bill Bennet's brain child: Had the companies bought/bailed out by the NDP been left in government ownership which was what the NDP intended, instead of being rolled into the huge Bennet BRIC mistake and eventually re-privatized at pennies on the dollar to ol' Jimmy there, we would all be a lot richer. It's just another reason why democracy is needed right here at home. BTW what we have now is know as 'government by contribution and private media' and has no relation to democracy.
So just to recap, all that wealth which actually belonged to BCers was for some curious reason mismanaged greatly, sold off to a private investor at a discount of 200 to 1 and then the oil and mining stocks which had been invested in by the hired guys with the rolexes and fancy suits bounced back. As someone on the web put it; all the wealth which ordinary British Columbians invested in their province was devalued by a right wing government and given away. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what happened with BC Rail and BC Hydro. It makes a person wonder who the heck they are paying taxes to.
Hughes
1 year ago
Careful SharingIsGood -- no
Careful SharingIsGood -- no one is entirely free of bias, no matter how unbias they may claim to be. That is not to say that this article by McMartin's is over critical of Campbell, it is not, in fact I think he is spot on for the most part. Campbell's record speaks for itself: he truly is the worst premier this province has ever endured (although Vander Zalm is nipping at Campbell's heels), but never be so naive think that anyone is entirely free of bias.
oldradiojock
1 year ago
Campbell padded his books on the backs of the Disabled
PharmaCare allows the Disabled of BC,to live with some dignity.
Campbell, has robbed this important faction, again to pad his books, without a whimper from our MLAs & Minister responsible.
Before Campbell,they allotteed two(2) teeth cleanings per year, without cost.
Campbell decided,without any legislation,to pay only 2/3 of the cost for these two(2)treatments. The Ministry did not inform anyone.
With a monthly budget of $842.00, minus $680 for rent & utilities,the $35-$40 per visit difference is my entire food budget for a week.
Now,on the eve of his resignation,once again, without legislation,Campbell has decided that the Province will only allot one(1) visit yearly.
We did not choose to be disabled & aren't considered for positions in the BC Civil Service, qualifications be damned, save for the token, one-in-a-million.
Why does he get away with it? Because the Disabled have no voice in BC.
So-called leaders,(MLAs)ignore us & hope that we will go away.
Should we ask for explainations or make the public aware of this, "grate leader's" sadistic disregaerd for us,they deliver nothing but grief.
Campbell's dictatorship has not been In-Session, for three (3) sittings & the Liberal MLA's offices, which are rented by the Province, not the BC Liberal Party are locked, night & day.
They are not accountable to the People of BC and are not doing the job that they are being paid for.
Perhaps the BC Liberals should be sued for committing Fraud, since there is no proof that they even worked,via Hansard,etc.
The Federal Government should do a complete Audit of every Province, after each Provincial election, so the whole of Canada would be aware of who is robbing them.
Start with the 2010 Olympics, which cost all Canadians dearly, but Campbell's group won't say how much, while Whistler laughs at we fools for paving their driveway for a $Billion (or so). For shame
John Corman
1 year ago
NDP Turns BC Into a Have Not Province
Mr McMartin goes to great lengths to argue that the NDP didn't push BC into Have-Not status in the 90's and then goes to even greater lengths to prove himself wrong.
The reason that BC received those extra transfer payments from Ottawa in the early 2000's was because we had became a have not province under the NDP.
For those of you that pay income taxes keep in mind that the numbers for the BC budgets that Mr McMartin quotes during the Liberal term are after huge personal income tax cuts. A person earning $50,000 in 2010 pays about $9000 in taxes while he would have paid over $14,000 in 1996. That is a huge difference and one of the reasons people now have money to spend and buy things like homes etc.
Gladys7
1 year ago
Nice job, Will
Why is the main stream media not picking up on this? (sigh)
Frank
1 year ago
John Corman
Look at the difference in house prices in 1996 compared to now.
The affordability of housing has declined.
As for BC being a have-not province, you don't say why that's important so I assume its because you don't know.
For a better world
1 year ago
John Gorman
Try re-reading Will McMartin's analysis again. If its too much trouble for you, you could just focus on the last section.
Even simpler, I'll recap it for you.
a) The Campbell government inheirited a $1.2 Billion surplus from the NDP from 2000/01.
b) The NDP only had one year in which they were a have not province. That was the 1999/2000 fiscal period, when they received $125,000 million from the federal government for equalization payments. In was only one year in the decade they were in power.
c) The Campbell regime received $2.7 billion in equalization payments for 5 years between 2001 and 2007.
d) The Bennett/Vander Zalm group received equalization payments for 3 years totalling $175 million.
The codswallop Billy Good, and his ilk in the mainstream media, spew seems to have confused you.
What is really troubling with supporters of conservative propaganda is if they don't like the facts they lie.
John Corman
1 year ago
A reality check - For a Better World
First, I believe we became a province dependant on Ontario and Alberta in 2002, or there abouts. It took about ten years to get us into that predicament.
It took Campbell a few years to get us out of the status of being on welfare and, I don't think any of that is debatable whether you like it or not.
I also take issue with your assertion and, that of Mr McMartin, that BC was a welfare province during the Bennett or Vanderzalm years. I seem to recall in those years of people in this province constantly complaining of having to pay for Quebec's and the Maritimes' special welfare perks.
G West
1 year ago
@John Corman
Please think again about what you just wrote.
Why did we become a have not province in 2002 - during Campbell's first term? Which, in your post, you acknowledge is the case.
Could it possibly be because of the enormous decline in government revenues due to the 25% cut in taxes instituted by Campbell during his first year?
I'd say it had to play a huge role - anytime you cut government revenues - because that's what a cut in taxes does - then you're going to 'create' a budgetary deficit.
This is not news - I'm surprised you aren't aware of this.
IN fact, Campbell put the province on welfare and, since he announced that there would NOT be a deficit in his 2009 budget, he's driven us further into deficit - despite such undeserved perks as an unearned gift of $119 million in excise tax paid on the German ferries which any patriotic premier would have built in British Columbia.
Not only has the asshole mismanaged the economy in every conceivable way, increased fees and license costs, reduced services and starved education, he has also behaved like a purblind traitor in encouraging subsidized labour in Germany while going to war against collective agreements and the manufacturing sector here at home.
You're the one who needs a reality check.
For a better world
1 year ago
John Corman
During the early 1980's, during the Bennett era, we had a significant recession. Forest companies and other commodity businesses were unable to generate adequate revenues. This of course resulted in mill closures and layoffs of many forest workers. It also reduced personal income taxes for provincial coffers.
Bennett stressed that the province could not solve the problem because demand for exports was beyond the control of the province. Provincial government employees were also laid-off and this resulted in even more lost income tax revenue.