The B.C. Liberals want voters to believe their promise of a future so bright they’ve got to wear shades. But all I can think about are the 331 children who have died in government care since Christy Clark was elected in 2013. There is certainly no bright future for them.
In the 2013 election we were promised “families first” but we soon discovered that it was only the families of the very wealthy, the ones who could afford $10,000 a plate dinners, whose concerns would be heard by the premier.
Families who could not afford daycare were not heard.
Families forced to choose between paying rent or buying food were ignored.
Families trying to survive on minimum wage did not factor into the premier’s concerns.
For whom is the premier promising a bright future?
Certainly not the children with learning disabilities who struggled to learn in overcrowded classrooms, the casualties of 15 years of deliberate defunding of public education.
Certainly not adults wanting to complete their high school education or those in post-secondary institutions who are increasingly using food banks to cope with high tuition fees.
Perhaps the bright future is only for students in private schools that have enjoyed a 66% increase in government funding since 2005?
The newspaper wraparound election ads promise us a “strong” B.C. but on what foundation is the future of our province being built?
Conventional wisdom has it that a society’s future is predicated on the strengths, skills and knowledge of the youth, but if we look at the way young people in this province have been treated by the B.C. Liberals since 2001, our future has a shaky foundation.
Cracks in our future foundation are already evident with a new report revealing that we have the worst economy in the country for young people.
Unlike older generations who enjoyed steady employment, younger people will have to get used to a world of precarious employment: Temporary, casual and seasonal work that make up the bulk of the jobs that the B.C. Liberals boast about.
And while they’re trying to make a living our younger generations will have to find a way to manage the burden of all the contractual obligations made by the B.C. Liberals when B.C. Hydro and I.C.B.C have been completed plundered for the cause of a “balanced budget.”
As if that’s not enough, they will also have to pay for the clean-up costs of environmental disasters, like the $40 million for the Mount Polley spill, since one of the advantages of those corporate donations is the deregulation that allows mining companies to siphon profits from our natural resources without concern for environmental destruction.
The more I think about it, a future under the B.C. Liberals is only bright if you happen to be a corporation, one of the many whose donations made international news.
If you can’t afford the $10,000 a plate dinners, the B.C. Liberals have little to offer you besides more of what we’ve been subjected to since 2001: Increasing poverty, increasing housing costs, increasing waits for ambulances, increasingly longer waits to see medical specialists, increasing deaths of children in government care.
What the B.C. Liberals offer is so dark and bleak that accepting their promises would be like accepting “protection” from the very mob who would destroy everything you hold dear if you don’t pay up.
I’m done paying.
Image: Flickr/ufv
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