It’s not often that I agree with Citizen editor Neil Godbout, but his column today on the plethora of pandering pronouncements from our politicians was pretty precise. (Puh-lease!)
In case you missed it, Godbout was hammering the Liberal government in general and local MLAs Shirley Bond and Mike Morris for an un-ending string of funding announcements on the eve of the provincial election. He listed off 20 announcements so far this month featuring Bond and Morris and compared that with three during the same period last year and none the year before.
What he didn’t mention was that this isn’t unique to Prince George. The Liberals are doing it in every riding across the province … well, at least every Liberal riding. As I write this at 1:30 p.m., the government ‘re-elect the Liberals’ communication machine has churned out 17 funding press releases since 8 a.m. this morning. The day’s only half done. Yesterday was pretty much the same, as was the day before and the day before. Most of them are, you guessed it, funding announcements. Funny, there’s no announcement unveiling a poverty reduction strategy or a curbing raw log export strategy or a dealing with pending AAC reductions in the Interior strategy.
Nope, it’s all cash, all the time.
I’m reminded of the 1980s when, in the midst of similar pre-election spending spree, Bill Vander Zalm pronounced: “It’s like we’re shovellin’ money off the back of a truck.”
Sadly, it’s a strategy that works.
