news Race officially begins for B.C. provincial election on May 12

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Race officially begins for B.C. provincial election on May 12

1 hour, 10 minutes ago




By Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

VICTORIA, B.C. - The B.C. election campaign is officially underway.
Premier Gordon Campbell visited Lt.-Gov. Steven Point on Tuesday and asked him to dissolve the legislature, making way for the official race for the May 12 election. Campbell said it's the most important election in a generation and the stakes are enormous during a time of worldwide economic distress.
The New Democrats are appealing for British Columbians to "Take Back B.C.," but Campbell said a vote for the NDP will take the province back to the economic troubles of the 1990s, when B.C. was lagging behind other provinces economically.
"All could be lost in a single day," Campbell told reporters in Victoria. "It's not a time to turn back. It's a time to look ahead."
He said the Liberals will release their platform on Wednesday.
New Democrat Leader Carole James didn't wait for Campbell. She hit the campaign trail early Tuesday, well before the premier even officially launched the election.
The economy and unemployment are expected to dominate the 28-day campaign.
James said the latest unemployment numbers prove Campbell's economic plan isn't working.
"People will be looking to say who do they trust to take care of them, their family and their community during these difficult economic times," she told supporters at the first rally of the campaign.
She said British Columbia had the worst job loss in the country in March and that predictions are that unemployment will continue to rise.
She said the Liberal government is completely out of touch with what's been going on in B.C.
"For two years, Gordon Campbell has ignored the issues that people have been facing in rural B.C. and forest communities. And now again when we see job losses coming, we see the premier saying 'Don't worry, British Columbia will get through this, everything's fine,"' she said.
"Well it's not fine for families. This is a government that has made life more difficult for British Columbians."
A redistribution of seats means there are now six more ridings, for a total of 85, up for grabs in an election that's largely turned the tables on predictable party lines.
Campbell's big-business, pro-development Liberals enter the campaign promoting themselves as friends of the environment and champions of aboriginal rights.
The Liberals were forced to retreat from an aboriginal reconciliation bill last month after some of the party's traditional big-business supporters revolted over the bill that would have entrenched aboriginal title.
For their part, the New Democrats have drawn fire from some of their traditional green supporters with their pledge to cut the provincial carbon tax.
James said all other jurisdictions are moving to a cap-and-trade pollution system.
She told New Democrat supporters that an NDP government will put people back to work with infrastructure and green-technology investments and by revitalizing the forest industry.