The conventional political wisdom – that governments are not defeated so much as they defeat themselves – might well apply Tuesday. But the fairer test for British Columbians, and the one more apt to apply, is whether any new vision has emerged that promises a better province.
It is simple in any 16-year governance to find grievances. So much has been done under the BC Liberals and there is so much of a record to cherry-pick. The advantage for challengers is the freedom to discuss how they would govern in theory, even fantasy, without evidence of their competencies or the weight of accountability for their records.
With that licence in mind, though, there are important questions to consider: Are we in decline? Is our government ignoring what ails us? Are the alternative proposals clearly going to serve our well-being better in the next four years? Are challengers clearly more capable than those they would replace?
The door was ajar in this campaign for John Horgan’s NDP. Even with the country’s best-performing economy in this term, there might have been sufficient fatigue to try something new – but only if it would apply novel ideas to our challenges without tainting the economic success story.
At the end of its fourth term in opposition, though, the NDP still has not found the plot. Rather than inject inspiration, it has conducted a lacklustre, underwhelming campaign of insufficient hope and specifics to merit power’s reins.A vital element in any evaluation of political competence is a campaign platform’s provision of candid financial detail. On that score, BC under the NDP would run a clear risk of heavier taxation on a much wider array of British Columbians than might expect or deserve it, amid an unclear plan of how to – and who will – pay for the promises.
Cases in point: such big-ticket items as Medical Service Plan premiums, BC Hydro rates and ICBC rates. Rather than unveil a wondrous and relieving path, the NDP has shovelled the messes into a large container for eventual review, an age-old tactic that doesn’t compute in 2017.
Moreover, the party’s social-program ambitions have the pretention of imminent gratification but the reality of glacial speed. The child-care program and housing commitments take a decade and are not in themselves problem-solving. The $400 annual rental rebate proposal might be the most superficial idea for a serious problem in recent memory. There is no substantial industrial strategy, either for tech or resources. And the hardly radical commitment by the Liberals for B.C. to join the ride-sharing economy has been treated like sacrilege.
Which begs the question: Was this the best the NDP could come up with after all this time?
And further: If that’s the case, should they assume the seat of power?
That a change in government is necessary is particularly difficult to argue when unemployment is the lowest in the country, when economic growth is the highest, when modest measures to dampen the excesses of the housing market have largely turned the trick, and when there are plans to address the unbridled nature of political financing.
To the issue of political conventional wisdom: The government hasn’t defeated itself. To the more apt concept: The opposition hasn’t adequately argued its case.
Kirk Lapointe is vice-president of audience/business development for Business in Vancouver.
