Thursday, February 13, 2003
The state of the province, and The Premier - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER – Last night, Premier Gordon Campbell delivered a State of the Province address paid for by the BC Liberal Party. He made some announcements that really could have been saved for the day before's Throne Speech or next Tuesday's budget speech by Finance Minister Gary Collins. Alas, the Premier, no doubt testing the PR waters following his Maui misadventure, paid Global Television to air a stilted and overly rehearsed piece of political drivel that was so fake and transparent it made my hair hurt.
Make no mistake, politicians should be able to make aggrandising speeches and/or presentations like the one Premier Campbell made last night, but my God, can't he at least try to not sound so pretentious and overly fake? I did not buy his sincerity at all.
Modelled after the American president's State of the Union address, Mr. Campbell has instituted what has become a provincial yearly tradition. Alas, with all of his high paid image consultants like Patrick Kinsella and Martyn Brown, he doesn't have an ounce of the sincerity that even President Bush showed when he gave his speech in front of partisans of both parties last month.
There were some noteworthy announcements in last night's State of the Province address. One was the $275 million dollars pledged in the so-called Forest Transformation Fund. This fund will help those in the forest industry, who've been affected by the softwood lumber dispute with the Americans. While I'm sure there was some kind heartedness involved with the creation of this fund, there was no mention as to whether the funding would go to the workers directly or to the companies. At the end of the day it's a drop in the bucket, but nonetheless it may damage further the Canadian position in the softwood dispute, as the Americans have been adamant that the government here subsidises the industry, thus the exorbitant countervail duties imposed. Perhaps that's why federal Ministers Pettigrew and Dhaliwal have been hesitant to contribute federal money heretofore.
There was an announcement that an early childhood development scheme was to be fronted by the government and a credit union. $30 million dollars for that, however no specifics on how that will be spent. A promise to fund inner city and community based school programs through this school year and "beyond," however no specifics as to the ‘beyond' part, and of course no figure attached. Would it not be better to give such money to the school boards affected directly?
And then there's a $100 million dollar pledge for education over the next three years. That's fine, but that works out to $33 million a year, roughly, whilst on Monday Premier Campbell and Education Minister Clark announced a one-time only $50 million grant for this fiscal year. By next year, this pump of $100 million dollars will be utterly lost. What now, if school boards like Vancouver or Port Coquitlam decide to send in deficit budgets? Will there be more acrimony from the provincial government? It's called covering your ass if you ask me.
There was talk of the support of the 2010 Olympic bid, and the opening up of the interior, the so-called Heartlands project, talked about the day before by Her Honour in the Throne Speech. Premier Campbell is now, not neglecting those in the hinterlands, who really swept him into office. After alienating them in 1996, Mr. Campbell is making amends by boosting tourism and industry there, as well as improving infrastructure. Some $609 million within the next three years will be earmarked for infrastructure projects in the rural parts of the province.
The Premier's office, through the contact Mike Morton, whom I've dealt with in the past with great success, put out a release moments after the Premier ceased to speak last night. It lauded all that I've written above, but neglected perhaps the most noteworthy piece of last night's speech – one that all will be talking about today: the 3 ˝ cent increase in provincial gas tax that will pay for all those infrastructure improvements. The spinners are on the ball working overtime.
Already, the high cost of gas, is due to taxes at the provincial and federal levels. A further 3 ˝ cents will not please the consumer much, considering it will go up further should there be a conflict in Iraq. Effective March 1st, this added tax whittles away more of that tax break we all benefited from the day after the Campbell Liberals took office in 2001. The question that remains is what else further taxes and levies does the government plan to institute come Tuesday when Minister Collins brings down his budget. Really, they must be happy in Victoria that the federal government brings down its budget that same day. The heat will be off Collins, but for how long? Brace yourselves kids, British Columbians are getting hosed next week.
On yesterday's State of the Province address, I don't buy Mr. Campbell's sincerity at all. It's not because I don't agree with him, because frankly, I appreciate a lot of the things he's proposed, especially those notices last night. However, after Maui, I cannot believe the man's sincerity or actions. He could have been drunk last night, considering he used his hands way too much in an effort to enunciate and look sincere. Really, why should he care if the price of gas is going up – he won't be driving any time soon.
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I caught the replay Tuesday evening of the proceedings earlier in the day, where the Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. Iona Campagnolo read the Speech From The Throne. It was terribly noticeable, that she read the government's plans at a rapid rate. My friend David Schreck, former MLA and adviser to former premier Ujjal Dosanjh, noted this before, and when asked Tuesday about this he could only presume that reading the speech made Her Honour "sick to dwell on any single thought." Schreck, also points out in an e-mail he sent me, that he ran against Campagnolo in the 1984 federal election, she being the Liberal candidate, he the NDP's. Alas notes Schreck, "the Conservative Chuck Cook, took more votes than the two of us combined."
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Also on Tuesday's Throne Speech, I noticed in that part where they note the notable British Columbians who've died over the past year, Premier Campbell and his people missed famed Vancouver broadcaster Jack Cullen and former chief justice of the BC Court of Appeal (our province's highest bench,) the Honourable Stewart Leggatt. Cullen, I could understand, but Leggatt was omitted in favour of famed fat cat Vancouver lawyer Peter Butler? Come on. I fired off an e-mail to the Premier's office and late yesterday afternoon I got this response from the Honourable Gordon Campbell himself (or one of his well-paid mouthpieces): "The identification of a few names of British Columbians we have lost, is a long standing tradition and as you can imagine, it is not possible to name everyone who has gone before us. The reference, however, does remind all of us to remember those other people we do know about as well." In order to not pay any disrespect to those who late British Columbians who were mentioned, I won't press the matter further. But if anyone at the Premier's office is reading this, even in death, I'm disappointed you'd still jerk my chain. Did Maui teach the Premier nothing?
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .