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Campbell: 'This is not a time for taking risks'

Premier Gordon Campbell laid the battle-lines for an election to be fought over the economy as he launched his campaign in Vancouver-Point Grey.

“This is not a time for taking risks, this is not a time for experiments,” Campbell told cheering supporters at his Kitsilano campaign office yesterday. “It’s a time for prudent leadership and prudent steerage of the economy.”

The Premier’s remarks came the same day a Mustel Group poll gave the B.C. Liberals a 17 point lead over the New Democratic Party. It also suggested 63 percent of British Columbians think the B.C. Liberals are most fit to preside over the economy.

Campbell took every chance to tie top-of-mind issues such as health care, education, policing and the environment to prudent financial management.

“Without a strong economy,” he said. “We cannot invest in the very important public goods that we all depend on.”

Campbell took swipes at the New Democratic Party several times, claiming a Dipper government would cost thousands of jobs and reduce the province to “have-not status.”

At the same time, the premier downplayed B.C. job losses totalling 63,000 between January and March this year.

“It’s been tough,” he told reporters in a scrum. “I think no one’s suggesting British Columbia has been exempt from what’s taking place.”

The premier may have his work cut out for him in Vancouver-Point Grey. He defeated NDP challenger Mel Lehan by less than 2,500 votes in 2005.

“It’s always been a swing riding,” Campbell’s campaign manager Greg D'Avignon said.

Lehan characterized the next four weeks of campaigning as a “dead heat.” Voters are looking for an approachable MLA who will represent their interests, he said, not an absent premier.

“There’s a real desire for change out there,” Lehan said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.


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