August 5, 2003
Kamloops Daily News


Eye View

After all that, I thought victory would be sweeter.  I went
to the rallies.  I protested the privatization of the
Coquihalla.  Now that the B.C. Liberals have scrapped
their plans to sell our highway, I should feel  better.

I guess it's the nagging feeling that nothing has really
changed.  Just because Premier Campbell has backed off his
plans doesn't mean he has changed his mind. 

He might become even more sneaky about privatization.  He
still thinks short term gain is worth long term pain.
Campbell would sell our resources for the sake of corporate
profit.

Once Campbell gets an idea in his head, it's hard to
dislodge it.  He will continue to stubbornly push his plans
for privatization of BC Hydro, BC rail, and other
Public-Private Partnerships.

"This is a government that seems incapable of change," said
professor Norman Ruff of the University of Victoria.  "They
are of a very determined mindset, in that they have a
mandate to do whatever they like."

Campbell might even retaliate against the dissenters from
the interior who killed his pet project.  He has said that
he will cancel needed highway improvements in the interior. 
"This is the premier's way of punishing residents of the
interior who stood up to him," says Chris Delaney, leader of
the Unity Party of B.C.  Kamloops MLA Kevin Kruger doesn't
like that talk. "No one is being punished.  He shouldn't say
things like that."  Too close to the truth, maybe.

What else are we to think?  After all, Campbell will spend
millions of dollars upgrading the highway to Whistler and on
rapid transit in the lower mainland  as part of preparations
for  the 2010 Olympics.  He says that highway improvements
will stimulate the economy and create jobs.

If those economics work in the lower mainland, they should
work in the interior.  Or, does Campbell think that we are
undeserving of an economic boost?  It looks like a double 
standard to me.

Perhaps in Campbell's strange economics, because we in the
Interior are a source of wealth, we should not benefit from
it.  After all it's the extraction of resources from the
Interior that fuels the economy.  More wealth is generated
in the interior, per person, than the lower mainland. 

MLA Kevin Kruger says that his government will not "borrow
money and leave more debt for future generations."  He
apparently says this with a straight face despite the fact
that the Liberals have generated record high level of debt
for every man, woman, and child in the province.

The Liberals will borrow more than $1 billion during a  seven-
years period to pay for the Olympic Games.  Kruger will claim that
somehow it's not borrowing when it's done in the lower
mainland.   He can't claim that Games revenue will offset
spending since money from ticket sales, TV contracts, and
corporate endorsements is years away. 

The Games' improvements could have been paid without
borrowing.  All Campbell has to do is recover the $2 billion
he lost in government revenue through tax cuts to his rich
friends.  But that doesn't make sense in Campbell's
economics.  In his reasoning, the rich get both a tax break
and they benefit from the Games.

The poor are relieved of their burden of rich resources and
left with ghost towns, decaying roads, and privatized
railways.  All to pay for the lifestyle of the rich and
infamous.

The record budget deficit is beginning to make Gordon
Campbell sweat.  Under the Liberal's own legislation, the
Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act, they
must balance the budget by 2004/5.  They are prepared to
sell anything to avoid breaking their own legislation. 

The Accountability Act also explains why the Liberals were
prepared to sacrifice local MLAs Kruger and Richmond through
the unpopular leasing of the Coquihalla.   The Act forces a
20% reduction in minister's salaries if they don't meet
budget targets.   The quick sale of the Coquihalla would
have balanced the budget for Minister Judith Reid and her
Ministry of Transportation.  With the cash infusion, Reid
would not receive a pay cut.  The interior MLAs would be
mere causalities in the next election if the Coquihalla had
been sold.

Campbell's vision of the province is narrow and parochial. 
It's not just that he is unable to see beyond Hope, but also
his stubborn economic tunnel vision is hopeless.

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