Often during elections the quest for power will reveal the shallowness of politics and the actions government will take to hang on to power. David Eby’s NDP government would have fallen on the proverbial sword in defence of their climate agenda and carbon tax but the threat of the John Rustad Conservatives possibly winning the upcoming B.C. election saw Eby acknowledge the dire economic conditions affecting many B.C. residents and offer to rescind the carbon tax on gasoline conditional on federal government approval.
It was no surprise Trudeau said no. After years of municipalities pleading to no avail to have the most disadvantaged members of society who are seriously suffering with mental illness and drug addiction taken off the streets and housed in treatment facilities now Eby acknowledges this must be implemented even if it requires involuntary confinement. This should have been done years ago.
Eby says in one of his TV ads that B.C. has big challenges and he has the solutions. Really? Where were the solutions during the last eight years? It seems it takes an election to materialize solutions and money! Kevin Falcon, with no consultation or advance notice, pulls his party out of the upcoming election and throws his support to the Rustad Conservatives. United Party MPs were blindsided and stripped of their party identity and forced to choose to retire, run for another party or run as independent. Falcon then decided to run several United Party candidates in the election so they could keep the United Party officially alive with Elections BC and receive compensation for election expenses. How this is legal is a mystery.
John Rustad and his Conservatives have seen a meteoric rise in popularity and the nightly plethora of NDP attack ads against Rustad are airing nightly several times and are getting tiring to watch, indicating how worried the NDP is. Rustad has controversial views on many of the election issues but one has to admire his determination to stick by his beliefs when being criticized by his political opponents. For the record, I am not a member of any of the political parties but vote based on the issues and who seems best positioned to deliver common sense solutions – not an easy task.
N. Osborne
Saanichton
