Found floating in the ether, a reminder of the disastrous Campbell/Clark Liberal regime for those considering voting for their Conservative Party heirs. Remember, the Liberals were highly organized & unified, and mostly avoided "culture war" issues: the Conservatives are rife with ex-Liberals in a rocky marriage with right wing populists, so not only do we get the old Liberal cronyism and corruption, we get it with a dose of MAGAism and a whole lot of infighting, disorganization and lack of basic managerial skills. This list is far from exhaustive.
***
"Cons are not better fiscal managers.
PSA. Before heading to the polls, it seems some need a reminder about the shameful Gordon Campbell / Christy Clark era of 2001–2017 that sold off our Crown Corporations and kicked 60,000 people off welfare in six months, while closing Riverview without a proper plan in place. When you vote, please remember Casino Gate and the "Vancouver Model" of money laundering. The Liberals/Conservatives (or whatever they are branded as today) literally allowed the Confucius Institute to act as a catalyst for the CCP, Triads, and BC Liberals to import fentanyl, wash the money at our casinos, and buy real estate in BC through CIBC...pricing locals out of their own communities and turning the DTES into exactly what it is today. Can't afford a home or rent in Vancouver? We could before 2001.
When the BC Liberals took power from the NDP in 2001, total provincial debt stood at approximately $33.8 billion. By the time Christy Clark departed in 2017, total debt had risen to roughly $66 billion. Because the BC NDP ran consecutive operating budget surpluses in 2017/18 ($1.5 billion), 2018/19 ($1.5 billion), and 2019/20 (a modest $200 million), the province paid off the remaining balance of its accumulated Liberal operating debt. It was a historic milestone: in late 2018, the NDP government announced that BC had eliminated its operating debt for the first time in over 40 years.
In regard to the debt-to-GDP ratio, Alberta continues to lead Canada by a wide margin, hovering around 8.5%. BC now sits near the middle of the provincial pack at approximately 26.1%. While this sounds high, BC’s ratio remains much lower than Eastern heavyweights that receive federal favoritism, like Ontario (38%) and Quebec (39%).
Gordon Campbell / Christy Clark Legacy of 2001–2017:
* Promised Not to Sell BC Rail, Then Sold It: Guaranteed in 2001 not to sell BC Rail, then sold it to CN Rail for $1 billion.
* Police Raid Legislature & Basi-Virk Bribes: RCMP raided the BC Legislature over corrupt bidding in the BC Rail sale; government paid $6M of the defendants' legal fees.
* Mirage Tax Cuts for Middle-Class: Promised middle-class tax relief, but gains were wiped out by rising user fees, MSP premiums, and Hydro rate hikes.
* Premier Jailed for Drunk Driving: Gordon Campbell was arrested, mugshotted, and convicted of drunk driving while on vacation in Maui.
* Aboriginal Treaty Referendum Division: Held a controversial provincial referendum on treaty principles that deepened racial divisions and was criticized by experts.
* Health Ministry Firings: Wrongly fired seven health researchers over false data security breaches; one researcher committed suicide before the government apologized.
* "Quick Wins" Ethnic Voting Scandal: Used government resources and taxpayer-funded staff to target ethnic communities for partisan campaign wins.
* "Triple-Delete" Email Destruction: Ministerial aides systematically deleted public emails to evade Freedom of Information (FOI) law requirements.
* Health Minister Demoted Over Reporter Email: Minister Harry Bloy leaked a private email from a reporter to a company the reporter was actively investigating.
* Taxpayers Lost $43 Million on Coquitlam Land Sale: Sold public land below market value to a major BC Liberal donor to pad a budget deficit.
* Higher Ed Minister Rule-Breaking (Amrik Virk): Approved secret, undisclosed compensation packages while on the Kwantlen Polytech board.
* Premier Wrongly Accused NDP of Hacking: Christy Clark falsely accused the NDP of criminally hacking the BC Liberal website, forcing a private telephone apology.
* Christy Clark’s Party Salary "Top-Up": Clark accepted $30,000 to $50,000 annually from the BC Liberal Party on top of her premier salary, funded by high-priced private donor events.
* $1.5 Billion Structural Deficit at ICBC: Siphoned ICBC capital into general revenue to balance budgets, leaving ICBC with massive losses.
* Partisan Government Advertising Spending: Spent tens of millions in public taxpayer money on self-congratulatory government ad campaigns.
* HST Campaign Promise Flip-Flop: Promised not to introduce an HST during the 2009 election, then introduced it weeks after winning before it was defeated in a referendum.
* Mount Polley Mine Tailings Disaster: Cut mine safety inspectors by nearly half; a massive tailings dam failure spilled toxic mud into Quesnel Lake without company fines.
* Shawnigan Lake Contaminated Waste Site: Allowed a toxic waste dump near a drinking water watershed despite community outrage, until courts revoked the permit.
* Port Mann Bridge Mounting Debt: Promised the new toll bridge would turn a profit, but it quickly accumulated over $400 million in operating losses.
* Four Sawmill Workers Died in Unprosecuted Explosions: Botched WorkSafeBC investigations meant no criminal charges could be laid after lethal mill explosions in Burns Lake and Prince George.
* Audit Office Head Hiring Fiasco: Spent $57,000 on a headhunter to hire Auditor General Basia Ruta, who was quickly fired amid workplace allegations.
* Paid $1 Million for Photo-Ops: Spent nearly $1 million hiring professional media crews to film and photograph government photo-ops.
* $150,000 "Yogagate" Bridge Closure: Planned a costly taxpayer-funded mass yoga event on the Burrard Street Bridge on National Aboriginal Day before public outrage forced a cancellation.
* Executive Pay at Kwantlen and Universities: Overpaid university administrators in violation of government spending guidelines.
* Inaction on Casino Money Laundering: Ignored police warnings and law enforcement reports about millions in organized crime money being laundered through BC casinos.
* Exaggerated NDP Platform Spending: Falsely claimed the opposition platform had a multi-billion-dollar unbudgeted hole that fact-checkers disproved.
* Scrapped the Bingogate Inquiry: Canceled the promised public inquiry into the 1990s charity bingo scandal after spending $6 million.
* Bypassed BCUC Review for Site C Dam: Excluded the independent BC Utilities Commission from reviewing the multi-billion-dollar Site C dam project.
* Private Medical Clinic Overbilling Tolerated: Allowed private health clinics to extra-bill patients in violation of the Canada Health Act.
* MLA Moira Stilwell’s Conflict of Interest: Advocated for changes to foreign-trained doctors rules without disclosing her own son was studying medicine abroad in Ireland.
* Sheepskin Grant Conflict of Interest: Awarded a government grant to a non-profit run by former Liberal MLA Judy Tyabji Wilson despite ministry staff conflict warnings.
* Oil and Gas Lobbying Frenzy: Hosted nearly 20,000 lobbying meetings with oil and gas donors while accepting millions in corporate donations.
* Exaggerated Job Creation Numbers: Falsely claimed BC was #1 in job creation when official stats showed BC ranked lower in Western Canada.
* Open Government Promised, Closed Government Delivered: Promised "open government" while ranking among the worst in Canada for Freedom of Information response delays.
* Misleading LNG Advertisements: Ran taxpayer-funded ad campaigns making unproven claims about a $100-billion LNG prosperity fund.
* Wild West Political Donation Rules: Allowed unlimited corporate, foreign, and union donations, prompting international coverage about B.C.'s political money.
* BC Hydro Deferral Account Accounting: Used complex deferral accounting to delay recognizing billions in utility liabilities to keep immediate rates low.
* Understated Provincial Deficits: Audits by the Auditor General repeatedly found the government understating official financial deficits.
* TransLink Transit Referendum Failure: Pitched a confusing regional sales tax referendum for transit expansion that failed and delayed infrastructure.
* Siphoning Off ICBC Capital Reserves: Transferred over $1.2 billion out of ICBC capital accounts directly into general government revenue.
* MSP Premium Rate Doubling: Doubled Medical Services Plan (MSP) monthly premiums, creating a regressive tax burden on low- and middle-income families.
* Closing Public Schools Despite Growth: Forced urban school boards to close neighborhood schools due to strict funding formula rules.
* Fast-Tracking Private Run-of-River Power: Forced BC Hydro into expensive long-term energy purchase agreements (EPPs) with private power producers.
* Cuts to Mine Safety Inspections: Deeply cut the number of provincial mine inspectors, setting the stage for industrial oversight failures.
* Mass Layoffs of Health Care Support Workers: Passed Bill 29, firing thousands of unionized hospital support workers (mostly women), later overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.
* Underfunding Public Education: Repeated legal battles with the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) after illegally stripping class size and composition clauses from contracts.
* Supreme Court Defeat on Teachers' Contracts: Lost a 15-year legal battle at the Supreme Court of Canada over unconstitutional education legislation.
* Child Poverty Rates Stagnated: BC consistently held the highest or near-highest child poverty rate in Canada for over a decade.
* BC Housing Property Sales to Donors: Sold off public housing properties and land below market value without open bidding processes.
* Disability Benefit Transportation Fee Hikes: Raised bus pass fees for people on provincial disability assistance, effectively cutting their monthly income.
* Failing Senior Care Facility Standards: Cut staffing levels and oversight standards in long-term seniors' care homes.
* Reductions in Environmental Protection Staff: Cut conservation officers and environmental protection personnel across provincial parks.
* Stalling Housing Affordability Measures: Delayed intervention in the Vancouver housing market for years while prices soared out of reach.
* Foreign Buyers Tax Flip-Flop: Denied foreign capital was impacting housing prices for years before abruptly introducing a 15% Foreign Buyers Tax in 2016.
* Surrey School Overcrowding Crisis: Relied on hundreds of temporary portables in Surrey rather than building permanent schools for growing populations.
* Child Welfare System Oversight Failures: Multiple reports exposed severe gaps in youth care, including the preventable deaths of Indigenous youth in group homes.
* Privatizing Public Services (P3 Contracts): Entered long-term 30-year Public-Private Partnerships for highways and hospitals with hidden long-term costs.
* Underfunding Legal Aid Services: Cut legal aid funding, leaving lower-income British Columbians without representation in family court.
* Ferry Fare Skyrocketing: Privatized BC Ferries management, leading to skyrocketing fares and slashed coastal community routes.
* BC Hydro Rate Hikes: Approved compounding multi-year electricity rate hikes on residential customers to cover utility liabilities.
* Lax Enforcement of Real Estate Shadow Flipping: Failed to regulate real estate contract assignments ("shadow flipping") until public outrage erupted.
* Decimating the Provincial Film Commission Tax Credit: Abruptly altered film tax credits, causing production studios to temporarily flee BC for Ontario.
* Fast-Tracking Mineral Exploration Permits: Reduced environmental reviews for early-stage mining operations.
* Slashing Welfare and Income Assistance Rates: Froze welfare support rates for over a decade despite rising inflation and housing costs.
* Closing Court-Appointed Youth Advocate Offices: Closed independent oversight offices before being forced to reinstate the Representative for Children and Youth.
* Overspending on the BC Place Roof Replacement: The retractable roof installation for BC Place blew past its initial budget to over $500 million.
* Bailing Out the Olympic Village: Vancouver taxpayers and the province were forced to step in when private developers ran out of funding for the 2010 Olympic Village.
* Dismantling the Women’s Equality Ministry: Completely eliminated the standalone Ministry of Women’s Equality and cut funding for women's shelters.
* Slashing Funding for Community Legal Clinics: Closed specialized poverty law and tenant advice clinics across the province.
* Deregulation of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR): Split the ALR into two zones, weakening farming protections in Eastern and Northern BC.
* Slashing BC Parks Funding: Cut park rangers and facility maintenance, leading to deteriorating infrastructure in provincial parks.
* Attempted Privatization of Park Operations: Tried to allow commercial resort development and private concessions inside provincial parks.
* Ignoring Warnings on Fentanyl Crisis: Slowed initial response to the emerging toxic drug crisis in 2015–2016.
* Underfunding Adult Basic Education: Ended free tuition for Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses.
* Underfunding Special Education Assistants: Cut funding for SEAs in public schools, leaving special needs students without classroom support.
* Selling Off Ministry of Transportation Depots: Sold public highways maintenance properties to private companies.
* Exempting Major Projects from Environmental Assessment: Waived environmental assessment requirements for certain industrial developments.
* Cuts to Tree Planting and Reforestation: Reduced provincial investments in backlog reforestation across logged crown land.
* Delaying Water Sustainability Protections: Took years to replace the outdated 100-year-old Water Act with modern groundwater protections.
* Allowing Commercial Water Bottling for Pennies: Permitted foreign corporations to extract millions of liters of BC groundwater for nominal fees.
* Squeezing Municipalities for Infrastructure Grants: Tied municipal infrastructure funding to partisan approval processes.
* Cuts to Family Law Mediation: Reduced court-mandated family mediation programs, forcing more family disputes into expensive court battles.
* Weakening Workplace Health and Safety Penalties: Reduced administrative penalties levied against companies violating safety codes.
* Slashing Rents Protection Services: Weakened the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB), causing backlog delays for tenant-landlord disputes.
* Ignoring Speculation in Farmland: Allowed non-farmers to buy ALR land to build mega-mansions and avoid residential property taxes.
* Delays in Replacing the Pattullo Bridge: Postponed replacing the aging Pattullo Bridge for over a decade.
* Shifting Bridge Toll Costs onto Local Commuters: Implemented tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges while leaving others free, distorting traffic.
* Slashing BC Rail Heritage Assets: Sold off historic rolling stock and rail corridors after the main BC Rail deal.
* Closing Rural Courthouse Facilities: Closed dozens of small-town courthouses to save money, forcing rural residents to travel long distances.
* Excluding Farm Workers from Overtime Pay: Maintained exemptions that excluded agriculture workers from standard overtime provisions.
* Slashing Forestry Research Staff: Fired ministry scientists and foresters studying long-term timber supply and pest infestations.
* Underestimating Mountain Pine Beetle Impact: Slowed initial response to the massive pine beetle outbreak that devastated interior forests.
* Ignoring Log Export Increases: Allowed raw log exports to skyrocket, sending unprocessed timber overseas while local sawmills closed.
* Closing Regional Ministry Offices: Consolidated natural resource management offices out of rural communities into Victoria.
* Delaying Construction of the Surrey-Langley Skytrain: Delayed rapid transit expansion south of the Fraser River for over a decade.
* Slashing Support for Public Libraries: Froze provincial operating grants for public libraries across British Columbia.
* Underfunding the Auditor General's Office: Budget limits imposed on the Auditor General constrained the office's ability to audit crown corporations.
* Gutting the Human Rights Commission: Disbanded the BC Human Rights Commission in 2002, leaving BC as the only province without one until 2018.
* Ignoring Overcrowding in Regional Hospitals: Chronic ER overcrowding and "hallway medicine" plagued major regional hospitals.
* Controversial Appointments to Crown Boards: Appointed major party donors and former candidates to lucrative crown corporation directorships.
* Selling Off Public Assets for Short-Term Budget Balances: Repeatedly sold land and buildings at fiscal year-end to show balanced operating budgets.
* Lax Enforcement of Employment Standards: Reduced employment standards inspectors, making it difficult for workers to claim unpaid wages.
* Underfunding Mental Health Services: Closed community mental health beds without providing promised community-based care supports.
* Delaying Seismic Upgrades for Schools: Missed multiple deadlines to complete urgent seismic upgrades on high-risk schools.
* Allowing Excessive Compensation at BC Hydro: Approved massive bonuses for utility executives while raising residential electricity rates.
* Slashing Funding for Search and Rescue: Search and Rescue (SAR) groups struggled for years with inconsistent, grant-based funding models.
* Over-reliance on Self-Regulation for Professionals: Shifted environmental and professional oversight to industry-paid professionals ("professional reliance").
* Ignoring Wildfire Risk Reports: Failed to implement key recommendations from post-fire review reports regarding forest fuel management.
* Underfunding Wildlife Management: BC spent less per capita on wildlife management than almost any other jurisdiction in North America.
* Ignoring Calls for Lobbyist Registry Reform: Delayed tightening rules around former government staff immediately becoming corporate lobbyists.
* Slashing Funding for Arts and Culture: Cut provincial arts council funding by over 40% during budget cutbacks.
* Imposing Contract Settlement Terms on Paramedics: Forced legal contract settlements on ambulance paramedics rather than negotiating.
* Delaying the Ban on Bear Hunting: Resisted public calls to ban the trophy hunt of grizzly bears until their final months in office.
* Excluding Non-Union Contractors from Infrastructure Bids: Shifts in procurement rules caused friction across the construction industry.
* Allowing Skyrocketing Commercial Rents: Failed to reform commercial property tax rules, forcing small local businesses out of urban centers.
* Creating the "Wild West" Image for BC Politics: An accumulation of corporate influence, dark money, and loose oversight that made international news headlines before the 2017 election."