NDP Spin Machine Kicks into Overdrive

January 9, 2009

The NDP’s misinformation campaign really kicked into high gear this week with the launch of a series of glossy videos starring Carole James that are high on rhetoric and dishonesty, and shockingly low on concrete ideas from the NDP. At a time when the world economy is at the top of everyone’s mind, British Columbians deserve real ideas and real action – not more NDP hot air.

Here’s just a small sample of NDP spin, and the real facts behind it:

The NDP’s dishonesty on The Environment:

Carole James says that the BC Liberals don’t have a ‘real climate action plan’.  Maybe she missed the enormous response hailing the BC Liberal climate plan as the best one for the economy and the environment.

Leading economists like Mark Jaccard and world-renowned environmentalists like David Suzuki agree that the B.C. carbon tax on pollution and the climate action plans of the B.C. government are exactly the right moves. And those same experts slammed the NDP for their baseless criticism of the BC Liberal actions, and their dishonesty around their own hidden carbon tax.

What’s the NDP plan for the environment? So far, it consists of nothing more than claiming that they ‘have a plan for the environment.’

The NDP’s reckless stance on Forestry

The forest industry is experiencing one of the toughest market cycles in history. Fortunately, there is a critical anchor of stability in these turbulent times: The Softwood Lumber Agreement.

Carole James’s plan’ for forestry includes ripping up the Softwood Lumber Agreement. This reckless measure will take away the only vestige of certainty for the industry, and put fallers and logging truck drivers out of work.

The NDP ‘plan’ would be devastating for B.C.’s forest industry. 

The NDPs incompetence with Your Pocketbook

Carole James talks about letting British Columbians keep more of the money they earn. If they really believe that, then why have the NDP voted against more than 100 tax reduction measures since 2001, and why do they continue to say that reducing income taxes and putting money back in British Columbians’ pockets “will do little for ordinary British Columbians”?

• Everybody knows that the NDP are the party that RAISES taxes. No amount of spin from Carole James can erase their dismal economic record – which includes raising B.C.’s income taxes to the highest in North American when they were in government.
• Under the BC Liberal party, British Columbians now pay the lowest income taxes in Canada. That means you keep more of the money you earn.

The NDP’s dishonesty on Homelessness

Carole James is simply being flat-out dishonest when she claims that the BC Liberals haven’t done anything for homeless. She knows the truth, but is refusing to be honest with British Columbians. Here’s the facts:

• Provincial support for housing and shelters has more than tripled since 2001 to $400-million this year, and we’ve committed to building almost 16,000 units of subsidized housing.
• Her dishonesty is blatant - she launched her video claiming the BC Liberal government was not creating new housing the day after Housing Minister Rich Coleman opened a new, $14-million, 44-unit supportive housing development on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. And that’s just one example of facilities being built across B.C. to house the homeless.
• The NDP also opposed the provincial Rental Supplement program - which provides up to $765 each month to help low-income families afford a home – dismissing it as a “gift to landlords.”

Carole James needs to stop spreading misinformation, and start supporting the innovative programs launched by the BC Liberals that have concreted actions and are achieving measurable results.

The NDP’s incompetence on the Economy

Once again, Carole James says that she’ll put “working people first” when it comes to the economy.  Let’s look at the NDP plan for B.C.’s economy:

• Reckless spending – The NDP plan calls for billions in new spending that would immediately drive our province into a deep deficit.
• The only way to pay for the NDP’s massive spending promises would be crippling deficits year after year – or enormous tax hikes.
• A new tax that would impose hundreds of millions in costs on almost every one of B.C.’s heavy industries – crippling communities that depend on sectors such as forestry, mining, oil and gas and energy.
• An arbitrary wage policy that would impose $450 million in costs on small businesses.
• Banning the development of independent power projects that are investing $4.5 billion in our economy and creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs in rural B.C.