As you can imagine, it’s an interesting time in the BC Liberal world. Five leadership candidates spanning the Conservative/Liberal spectrum. As campaigns rev up, we can watch the promises fly. To try to keep track of everything, I’ve tried to mount the most recent issues and the candidates’ positions on them in a table format.
If you have other issues/stances – please feel free to comment below…
* RED MARKS DISSENTING OPINION
| Candidate | HST | Minimum Wage | Snap Election | Carbon Tax | Lower Voting Age | Translink | Charity Grants |
| Christy Clark | A free vote on the HST ahead of planned referendum next September | Signalled her support for a carefully considered increase | Yes | Doesn’t support freezing the carbon tax on the fly | Said on Twitter and Facebook she supports lowering the voting age in BC | N/A | Will boost gaming grants by $15 million |
| Mike De Jong | Referendum on tax moved up earlier than Sept | Increase minimum wage but declined to say by how much. | No | Supports the carbon tax | Lower the voting age in British Columbia from 18 to 16 years of age | N/A | N/A |
| Kevin Falcon | Will travel to Ottawa to seek Prime Minister to reduce the HST by a percentage point
Proposing the referendum be moved ahead to June |
Promises to look at raising minimum wage | No | Said a freeze on the carbon tax might be an option | Supports it in conjunction with mandatory civics courses as a part of the high school curriculum | Extended hours for TransLink services on Friday and Saturday nights | Promised to restore arts funding, suggested de-linking charities and gambling |
| Moira Stilwell | Would seek to have the referendum date moved up | Says the minimum wage should be raised to $10 an hour over a two-year period | No | Pricing carbon is widely viewed as good policy, supports tax | Wants to hear from the public | N/A | Gaming grants should be “restored to their original purpose,” including three-year funding agreements instead of year-to-year deals |
| George Abbott | Proposing the referendum be moved ahead to June. | Call for a review of B.C.’s $8 minimum wage – to see whether it is time to raise it | No | Believes it is too soon to start planning to change it | Supports dropping voting age to 16 | N/A | Liberals should “do the right thing” and promised $4.5 million to restore grants for arts groups to 2008 levels |
A useful summary, but please add a column stating whether the candidates favour launching a judicial inquiry into the sale of BC Rail, and the payment in taxpayers’ money of $6 to $7 million in legal fees for Basi and Virk who had pleaded guilty.
Wow. Useful. I’m pleasantly surprised that there is so much support for lowering the voting age.
I think Brenton said that Kevin Falcon is more right wing than Harper- that doesn’t really come across here, except perhaps the bit about freezing the carbon tax.
Julian. This matrix is flawed by what it asks, though. There’s no column about what each candidate promises to privatize. And keep in mind that the paradigm in which all these candidates are being compared is within the BC Socred/Liberal framework, which is quite right of centre all on its own. True?
Interesting perspective from a right-wing blog in BC. What do the lefties say?
David- are any of the leadership candidates making statements about what they’ll privatise or not privatise? If not, your column would consist of a lot of question marks.
Are you saying the Daily Gumboot is a right-wing blog? Compared to the Young Communist League’s blog, I’m sure it is, but compared to mainstream political discussion?
David, Julian, Catchlight – thanks for your thoughts.
I think a column on BC Rail would be quite informative – when the holidays slow down, I’ll see if I can update the tracker.
David, My aim with this matrix was to evaluate the candidates within their own political spectrum/perspective – ie. what are the BC Liberal issues of contest and where does each candidate stand on the issues. As for being right wing – I’d encourage you to check out the politics and leadership section of the blog (you can search for it via category). A lot of our writing has been more focused on the NDP than the liberals. I tend to agree with Julian in that how “right-wing” this blog is, is relative to what you’re comparing it to!
Thanks to everyone for adding their two cents to this discussion and for the feedback!
Falcon is very in favour of expanding oil and gas extraction, and compromising the ALR in the process.
David, as a moderate lefty, I think you’re off with your characterization of this as a right-wing blog. More wing-nut than right-wing. Heavy metal weddings, Christmas lists, How to be a traditional German Nazi, etc…
Thanks for the support Brenton (I think….)
Whatever, you guys are pretty right wing. Who gives the BC Socreds a platform like this to celebrate their promises? You might want to charge Falcon for the free advertising you’re giving him.
– david
I don’t know what’s happening…I take a few days off on the holidays and this happens. Amazing.
To this thread I will say…”Thank You?”
Unadulterated support. David is way off. This should be of interest to anyone following the BC Libs, regardless of who they support or where they fall on the left-right spectrum.