Let’s be clear: There will be no honeymoon period for the new Green-backed NDP government.
If you thought Christy Clark had a way with wrenches when she was struggling to find ways to hang on to power, look out — she now has two free arms to throw even more into the mix.
We can’t even imagine what tricks the BC Liberals will have up their sleeves during the next couple of months.
But that may be the lesser of the new government’s challenges.
People wanted change — it wasn’t just a political slogan during this last election — but change is a lot easier to promise than to deliver.
Supporters of new Premier John Horgan and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver may expect miracles on housing, transit and the environment.
The good news is that if what Clark said was true in her final days of clinging to power — that somehow the government’s books were about $2 billion better to the black than expected — then Horgan and Weaver can start throwing cash around for pet projects pretty darn quickly.
But they’ll also have to appear prudent with taxpayers’ money because even though Clark was promising she would have put in almost all of the NDP’s policies before losing her premiership, you can bet she’ll be back to singing from the old BC Liberal songbook soon with a tune that goes something like “Those NDPers — ya can’t trust ’em with your money.”
So it will be important for the new government to avoid taking the $2 billion worth of bait, instead keeping its eye on keeping its promises made to voters.
And please remember, dear leaders, that most voters don’t care what your ideology is. Most voters just want an honest government that doesn’t place its friends and donors first. A government that sees policies as a way to improve everybody’s standard of living, not a way to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. Most voters don’t care how you fix things, they just want things fixed.
And they really don’t want to listen to politicians fighting. It may be exciting for political wonks and party faithful or lobbyists — maybe even journalists — who are keeping score but the average taxpayer would rather see a well-managed, compassionate province that isn’t based on a winner-take-all game.
It’s probably a fantasy but it doesn’t hurt to hope for a better B.C., does it?
– New West Record
