By One Man's Opinion

Dear political leaders

Apr 11, 2017 | 8:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — Here’s an open letter to B.C.’s political leaders, now that the writ is being dropped today for the May 9th provincial election.

Dear Political Leaders:

You do know, don’t you, that the provincial taxpayers are not just a bottomless pit of dollars to be pulled out whenever you wish to find more money for your political ambitions? You do know, don’t you, that people like me, and many more who are living below the poverty line, don’t have the kind of resources that can match what you’re promising in the campaign? There is no fertile soil anywhere in the province that can grow money trees that big.

In the past few days, we’ve had a plethora of spending announcements by the Liberals, putting billions and billions of dollars into various projects, ranging from small announcements for minor community projects, to major health care and transportation issues and everything in between. Those announcements may well have been planned, and are contained within the provincial budget, being saved up for the campaign, but it’s still money that has to be spent, and has to come from somewhere.

John Horgan of the NDP promises us a province we can afford to live in. While in the next breath, he is promising to do that by creating $10-a-day day care, killing bridge tolls and promising to freeze Hydro rates. You do know, don’t you John, that if you implement those things, you can only pay for them by taking the funds out of other pockets, or by creating a huge deficit that will be hard to pay back? So what in your promises makes this more affordable for me as a British Columbian.

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Obviously, the political parties know that at least some of you are going to fall for this crap (and that’s a mild term for what I’d really like to say), and we do, every election. We will buy one side of the argument or the other, knowing that we’re probably going to get burned no matter which way we go. Strong BC – Bright Future (Liberals), or It’s Time to Build a Better B.C. (NDP) or Put our Province Back in the Hands of British Columbians (Greens), or one of the many party alternatives. Whichever slogan you subscribe to, you can bet the promises won’t be accomplished without dollars. Everything costs money, and no matter what you believe, if you don’t believe that, if you truly believe we can build new hospitals or provide more teachers in the classroom without increasing taxes or the deficit, you really are naïve. But a lot of us must be, because the parties continue to look for that magical slogan that will have you vote for them, no matter how impossible it is to justify what they’re saying.

For the next four weeks, put on your filter, you know the one I mean, and consider all of these statements carefully. You have four weeks to really determine who can tread the fine line between what we need, and what we can afford. And all of us want something different. Some of us will be disappointed when we find our party just can’t deliver what they promised.