I can’t see how somebody can look at the record surplus under the NDP, and then the BC Liberals come along, and there’s a two record deficits in a row (holy shit! borrowing money to give it away!), and still maintain that the Liberals are good for the economy.
The only reason we don’t have a deficit now is because BC received money from the federal government for being a “have-not” province. How embarassing is that? BC’s so poor now that Ontario and Alberta have to send us money.
Thanks Bill Belsey. Only a clown could look at the worse financial management in BC history and call it a success.
The problem with the Tyee analysis is it ignores the structural deficit the New Democrats had built in to the governments future expenditures. It also ignores the fairly large number of one time benefits the NDP made to their reported expenditures by moving various government expenditures off their books to the accounts of Crown Corps and other government controlled entities, thereby generating surpluses or mitigating deficits. The Tyee tends to be a little simplistic but I guess thats how you tell compelling, short stories.
“structural deficit” means that if you give away 2 billion dollars, then you’ll be 2 billion dollars in the hole.
The problem the Liberals had was that even their own Liberal Auditor General showed that there was a huge surplus. How could that be? So they gave it away, and then some. They borrowed 2 billion more!