NDP Reveal One More Plank in Platform
Thursday, February 21, 2013 @ 11:33 AM
NDP leader Adrian Dix at Exploration Place in Prince George – photo 250NEWS
Prince George, B.C. – NDP leader, Adrian Dix, has revealed another plank in his party’s election platform, but the overall strategy has yet to be revealed. He says if elected, his government will reinstate the BCPALS program which had the Science World Road show visit communities outside Vancouver.
Dix made the announcement this morning at Exploration Place in Prince George and says the program costs about a million dollars. He says it could be up and running in time for the 2013/2014 school year.
He says the travelling Science World program would be a boost to encourage youth to get more involved in science and technology programs at a time when the Province needs people to get involved in those sectors.
But Dix was not so clear on when his party would unveil its election platform. He says he thinks it would be before late April, but cannot be more specific “ The budget was tabled Tuesday, and so we have to review that and review the fiscal situation. What I have said pretty clearly is that we’re not going to promise things we can’t afford.” He says the promises being made, are all framed with details on the funding source, including the announcement made this morning “Specifically we’re saying that will come out of reductions in government advertising budgets. So, whenever we announce something, for example we announced a program to ensure young people would have access to post secondary school education more than a year ago, and we said specifically where the money would come from for that, which is reinstating the minimum tax on the big banks.”
He says now that there is a budget in place, they will have to “assess that and present a fully costed platform and the public, far before the election, will see what we’re going to do and how we’re going to pay for it, and I think that is as it should be.”
Dix wouldn’t be specific on plans “There is a whole series of things which I would like to do and we will do. There is a whole series of things I would like to do, but we wouldn’t be able to afford to do right now and those are the questions and things we are analyzing now and then (there are ) things we won’t do. So that, over the next period we’re going to look at those, we’re going to be ready and we’re going to present a platform. ‘Cause it’s not just a platform, we hope that it’s a program of government and that means spending public money.”
When pressed for when the public could expect that “platform” Dix responded with “We’re working on it now and when we come close to the work being completed, we will let people know.”
Comments
the emperor straight up “has no clothes” , seriously how could people have already decided to vote for NDP when they have no platform, what are you voting for, their past record. I’m seriously baffled, give me something to make me say hey this might be a better option. I want a government that can do something more then just point out what they see as the mistakes of their predecessor, christ we have a forum full of people that can do that.
If the NDP gets back into power say goodbye to the economy….last 3 times they have been in power the province every time went into a downhill spiral don’t expect anything to change that trend with Adrian Dix……
It’s smart of the NDP to wait until the last minute to reveal their platform. You don’t want to give people too much of a chance to see what they’re signing up for.
” He says he thinks it would be before late April, but cannot be more specific”
Sooo… Two weeks before the election? I read that as “we got nuthin and we dont want it debated to show all the holes. We will rely on those sheep simply voting the other party out”
Banks can’t afford to be taxed more, take the money from the middle class, or, just let the debt continue to swell, as it has done for the last 12 years.
It’s smart of the NDP to wait until the last minute to reveal their platform. You don’t want to give people too much of a chance to see what they’re signing up for.
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I’ll buy that. Why would they give us a platform when they dont ven know whats in the bank. Just look at Scary Sheri he gave us a platform of a 10% reduction on all departments at City Hall. Andm all we got is a Core Review that the Fraser Insitute would of done for free.
The best plan yet is to tax the big banks where the money is and there is little overhead.
Cheers
Have to agree not a bad start, but why in hell did the banks have a tax cut in the first place.Did the Libs think thy would pass the savings down to the little people not a chance.We pay our fair share and more, so these buggers can pony up also, same with the corp bums.
What the Fiberals & their corporate friends are really scared of is that when the NDP get in is that they will have a chance to audit the real books. Ordinary taxpayers will be in for a big surprise! We already know that they have more than doubled the debt while in office and that is not counting the over $80 BILLION they have given their friends with p3 contracts.
Seriously? How is this even a story? In addition to the typos throughout the article, it’s pretty clear this reporter is clueless. The entire province is focused on the budget, and this reporter is demanding a platform 3-months before the election?
Political Parties very rarely release an election platform before the writ is dropped, which won’t happen until mid-April.
In lead up to a platform launch, political parties of all stripes will stagger their policy announcements from week to week, because once they release their platform, they get one or two days of media coverage, and then reporters are too busy chasing stories about football scores and shootings to pay any attention to anything else of substance. You’d have to be a pretty stunned reporter not to understand this reality, which is really a product of how the media outlets do business.
Where’s the BC Liberal platform? Did this reporter cover the BC Liberal nomination announcement yesterday? If so, did he/she ask that candidate the same question?
Doubt it.
Theres a big difference between a candidate and the leader of opposition and future wanna be premier. There just gonna ride the anti government sentiment into office, thats their platform.
Not saying that’s not a wise platform when everything points to you winning, why rock the boat right.
Lets not forget the Fast Ferries, Skeena Cell, and Vanc Island Highways fiascos of the NDP
Who was lining who’s pockets then?
Hurry up election. Left, right or in-between, this BC jobs plan commercial every 5 minutes is driving me nuts.
Still thinking about what? What is the problem? Haven`t they got any ideas? Quit the navel gazing for gosh sakes! Seriously, are you really frozen from the kneck down?
And by the way, his announcement wasn`t part of their plank, it was a bloody knot whole!!!
Wow! The Fiberal trolls here are sure sounding desperate! The only ‘plank’ they have is off the side of their sinking ship of mismanagement, lies, record debts, etc. etc.
Denaljo, putting opinions and rhetoric aside and just looking at the facts of this specific subject, do you really think that this announcement should get any ink?
Really?
While the $1.6 Billion BC Hydro just got stuck with is more than 5 times the fast ferry investment in BC shipbuilding.
The BC liberals are 100% responsible for the fiasco that lead to todays court fine for ripping off California. BC home owners will be paying for this through our rates.
Enron was involved in all levels of fraud. They were swapping revenue illegally with the datacom companies like Worldcom, Global Crossing, and 360 Networks… they had Arther Anderson as their auditors… and they were trying to make a fake electric utilities market to fleece utility rate payers. Enron got busted on all accounts and went from the 4th largest corporation in America to bankruptcy.
After all the fraud by Enron, their auditor was next to fall for the revenue swapping scams (ie revenue for multi years claimed up front, and expensed over the life of the contract). Arther Anderson was the largest accounting company in the world at the time… a week after their fraud came to light they were nothing. Meanwhile the principles at Arther Anderson got away with their new incarnation called Accenture… which BC Hydro promptly hired to put their accounting alchemy to work doing BC Hydro’s billing.
At the time I was outraged the BC liberals would sell this key part of Hydro to a criminal enterprise. I had a meeting with Pat Bell to point out this was ludicrous for hydro to be doing business with known criminals like that. It sent out a clear message the BC government is in league with a criminal element and would do nothing for honest investments in BC. Pat Bell brushed it off as the liberals being elected with a mandate to deregulate the securities market in BC, and personally vouched for the business practices at Accenture.
Fast forward 10-years and we have long since rolled back billing into the crown corp with the Accenture experiment being a costly failure, and now we are paying rebates to California home owners to the tune of $1.6 billion for allowing BC Hydro to be party to an illegal accounting scandal.
IMO this ranks right up there in outrage similar to the BC Rail sell off and the HST election fraud. The BC liberals have been and are in league with the worst kind of white collar financial criminals… the California BC Hydro case is just further independent evidence based proof of this.
Pat Bell picked a good time to run and hide from accountability.
I would like the NDP to have a chance again.
I would like the NDP to have a chance again.
Eagleone, how are the liberals responsible for the California power lawsuit, the NDP was the governing party at the time this gouging supposedly took place,don’t let the facts distract from your story though. So now you can redo the math and add hydrogate to the fast ferries debacle, didn’t the fact that the NDP energy critc didn’t come out screaming foul tip you off a bit
Actually Zig, the whole Accenture debacle was completely a Liberal failure. A costly one at that. BC government doing business with known criminals. But thats daily business in one of the most corrupt provinces in Canada. For organized crime to be as profitable as it is, the corruption must run pretty high up the ladder. It has been this way through many different governments.
Accenture was 100% Liberals.
As was the selling of the Ferries for less than scrap value.
As was paying millions in legal costs for guilty parties in the BC rail scam.
As was more than doubling the debt we leave for future generations.
As was the carbon tax scam.
I could go on but its getting tedious.
I hope everyone on this site votes.
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