I don't know if its fair to attribute these things to one man... all of which are a part of the regular duties and maintenance of any government as time and the world progresses. Its like saying we should all thank Dan Rogers because water comes out of our taps when we turn the taps on. All of the above mentioned things are things any government would have, and should have done... otherwise maybe Northern BC should have separated and managed its budget on its own?

Privatizing BC Rail was horrible for this region... even those forestry executives that at first supported the privatization say its turned into a disaster. Getting rid of connection raw logs to the communities was horrible for many northern communities, and almost killed some of them. The lowest minimum wage in Canada and the highest child poverty rates are all real legacies of decisions that were Gordon Campbell specific.

Not to mention the advancement in the bureaucratic state under Gorden Campbell not equaled since Dave Barret brought the CCF to power in the 70's... laws against camp fires... laws that make ICBC an extra judicial organization trumping our Charter of Rights... the carbon tax... the sell off of our rivers and water rights to his insider friends... the crashing of BC Hydro through contracts he signed... the anti BC employment HST give away to his globalist friends... the consolidation of power in the political party behind the scenes of our democratic process... all direct policy decisions of Gordon Campbell outside the daily operations of government.

I don't think PG did well under Gordon Campbell... provincial money was not his to spend in his name for his legacy... one would hope these projects were all approved based on their merits, and not one mans decision.

Eagleone.. " hope these projects were all based on their merits,and not one mans decision". Conversely,one man did not make all of the bad decisions either. People are too quick to cast blame. Campbell was premier but he was not the Government. A lot of the blame should sit in the laps of the bureaucrates. They are our enemies.

Governments come and go, bureaucrats seem to stick around like glue and your right in most cases bureaucrats can sink just about any government, Minister, or prime Minister by applying their own agenda. Campbell ruled with much intimidation my way or the highway. Which can lead to your down fall. James also must go and they need an economic plan that represents the needs of working people and family's if they have any hope of success in the next election. And agree with Ben we have done very well by Campbell in the North no question.

Thank you Ben for your very truthful (but of course not very popular with some!) evaluation of what the BC Liberals did for this area. BTW, I am neither a Campbell fan nor addicted to the doctrine of any political party.

It's a good thing that we did get some of the things we badly needed because once things would begin (again) to go from pretty good to scary abysmal in Victoria we may not even get lines painted anymore on our roads.

Like in the nineties!

I agree with Ben. We did well. To say that we would have done as well or maybe even better under another leader of the Liberals or even another party is total conjecture.

To say that this is the same as saying that Dan is repsonsible for water coming out of the taps is totally childish. Water has been coming out of the tap for so many decades it will be close to a century soon.

Without a growing population this City would not have come to a grinding halt if none of those projects had been built. The congestion at the BCR when people drive home from work is nothing compared to congestion in the lower mainland. People in other parts of the province have further to go to a Cancer Clinic. Some still will once this one is finished.

Of course, to be fair, we must also see whether we got some bad treatment in the past.

Under which government did we get the following?

1. the four laning of the Hart Bridge
2. the Foothills Bridge?
3. the Yellowhead bridge?
4. the UNBC
5. the new east wing of the hospital
6. the CNC
7. the Dental Hygiene and Library expansion of CNC
8. the Nechako River ice jamb and flood

:-)

BC now has a larger debt than when the NDP left power. Gee, thanks Gordon Campbell! What a great guy!

Campbell lied to the public with regard to a referendum on the treaty process in order to get elected.
Campbell lied to the public on his plans for BC Rail in order to get elected.
Campbell lied to the public on his plans for the HST in order to get elected.

The BC public may not be fast learners, but three times a charm! Good Riddance!

By the way, the Airport expansion was paid for using funds that came from the BC Rail deal. Useless long runway in exchange for a profitable railway? Poor deal in my opinion.

herbster summed it up pretty well. The things that were built,roads, bridges, etc., were well over due anyhow. Is it one man's accomplishment because we actually have more than one lane in and out of this city? He backed himself in a corner and took the easy way out,quit! Later Gordon and some of those who should follow!

I have read a few places that Prince George is growing. and that our population is getting higher. Where is this data coming from?

Stats Canada Data (population of PG)

1996 - 87731
2001 - 85035
2006 - 83225

Today on city website - 70981

Looks to me like the city is shrinking at least in population.

Data from:

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/92-596/P1-2.cfm?Lang=eng&T=CMA&PRCODE=59&GEOCODE=970&GEOLVL=CMA&TID=0

http://www.city.pg.bc.ca/

So what can we expect under a new leader? There is no guarantee.

Lets hope that they will stop feeding our City with tax dollars to implement some of the stupid projects that our mandarins at City Hall have been dreaming about. The airport is a great example. One large aircraft has used the new airport. How quick we forget that it cost the taxpayers $33,000, 000.00 . And for what purpose.

Did we really need to twin the Fraser bridge? Most of the projects have all been on the Cities wish list and because we have a couple liberal MLA’s Campbell has obliged and given the City what they have wanted. And the most disheartening part is that the population of our City is declining. The sooner our City gets less money from senior levels of government the sooner they will come to their senses that they are living in a dream world.
Cheers

And so the media political bafflegab starts.

Totally agree with Ben. Well said.

It is the big picture that has to viewed.

What’s really baffling is that the business community is so frightened of socialism and here we have a capitalist government in its finest form living off tax dollars to shore up our economy. So it appears we are capitalist in name only. So when will our CAPITALISTS start investing in our community to diversify our economy instead of using tax dollars that only help screw up a good free enterprise system that works for the good of all.

Are they afraid that the tax money may be used to actually provide social programs. That would provide a more stable economy instead of going from boom to bust on a regular basis. Our current effort to fight crime is a fine example of what happens when we to fail to provide for the social needs of the community. Yes maybe the Campbell government was good for our economy but in all this good we have become the crime capital of Canada
Cheers

I'd be more inclined to give our MLAs credit for our local projects, rather than Campbell as party leader. Whether you agree or disagree with their party politics, Pat and Shirley do go to bat for this town.

The only way people like Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen get to hear about Prince George projects is through local MLAs. Bell and Bond do a good job selling this town, which is important in an MLA.

The physical infrustructure of PG has expanded during Campbell's tenure, so did during the previous NDP's. But the social and environmental situation in PG has gone down the tube. The city is losing population during Campbell's decade because the population see better places to live and procreate. The city's lost soul has decayed during Campbell's decade.

It is time to remove the rose colured eyeglasses and see the grey downtown, infested with crime and prostitution,
as it is. It is time for the politicians to turn down the volume and remove
their headphones and instead hear the smallville symphony of the cries and protests in the street theatre of downtown.

Have Campbell, and his dear friends, his hand picked cronies, just listened instead of ignoring and silencing the folks, we were in a much better place now. Have Campbell, and his cronies, rewarded performance instead of rewarding friends (friends with terrible performance), we could have been able to walk the downtown streets of PG at night and breath the air at day, without fear.

The legacy of Campbell and his team, is the legacy of pouring money to make big empty ivory towers and "Ego sport centers" to show off the greatness of their big egos; to waste money on mighty Olympics and then milk the poor and middle class by HSTs and taxes to compensate for their idiocy and drunk-driving spending.

We should learn a lesson out of this and next time, we should put a somber guy in control of our lives and our money. But
the drunkyard legacy of Campbell will not end here if he tries to creep into the shadows and leave one of his paupets in his place and try to pull the strings.

And the show goes on ...

And we also received,
From a read my lips $500 million deficit before the election to $2.5 billion deficit after the election.
6 million payout to cover up the BCR scandal.
No HST on the radar to HST and the song dance story that goes along with it.
Higher MSP premiums and user fees.
BC Hydro asset sale.
Instead of lower ICBC premiums the money ends up in gov't coffers.
Icrease in cost of buying a auto privately from 7% to 12%.
Try to buy public support with a BC income tax reduction that hardly comes close to the additional family cost created by the HST.
Yes, Gordon and the Liberals have done quite a bit for us.

Starrider .... you are comparing apples and oranges

The figures you referenced from Census Canada are the Census Agglomeration areas, which includes outlying areas.

The City website references the CITY population from the 2006 census.

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/details/page.cfm?B1=All&Code1=5953023&Code2=59&Custom=&Data=Count&Geo1=CSD&Geo2=PR&Lang=E&SearchPR=01&SearchText=Prince+George&SearchType=Begins

2006 = 70,981
2001 = 72,406

Here are BCStats population estimates up to and including 2009 since the 2006 census:

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/pop/mun/SubProvincialEstimates_2006-2009.xls

Prince George
2006 = 72,889 (Census Canada supposedly underreports
2007 = 73,340
2008 = 73,886
2009 = 74,547

Of course the City's web site is not internally accurate. It is another part of the City in a poor state of disrepair.

It says here it is a bustling city of over 77,000 ...

http://city2.princegeorge.ca/cityhall/AboutOurCity/Pages/Default.aspx Upgrading the web site seems to be another 3 year project .......

"The city is losing population during Campbell's decade because the population see better places to live and procreate."

I am not disputing that the people in BC and Canada as well as immigrants are seeing better places to live during Campbell's decade. In fact, that is part of my continuing mantra on here. Cities compete, and the more people understand that and the more people understand that while access to jobs is part of that competition, there are other things that have become an important part of that equation.

The major growth that took place in the decade of about 1965 to 1975 was because of jobs created by the major expansion of the forest industry here and in the regional communities that we became the service centre for.

Thirty years after 1981, when the big crash came, we have yet to learn to live with a slow growth, no growth and even negative growth scenario.

Campbell is not the cause. The BCLiberals are not the cause. The cause, in my opinion, is the inability of this province to diversify its economy in the regions. The GVRD is doing fine, thank you very much. It is part of the international urban environment working as a perpetual motion machine.

The rest of the province is still tied to the land feeding the GVRD and the rest of the world with the benefits of selling natural resources to be used in other parts of North America and the world.

With respect to foresty, we have hit the apex and with the pine beetle we even have to deal with a downfall. At the same time we are continuing to lose jobs due to automation improvements. There are no new jobs. The potential is with value added wood products. Most of those who have tried have failed.

Here is that story told in the census population numbers for the City, not the agglomeration.

year population change
1976 59,929
1981 67,559 12.7%
1986 67,621 0.1%
1991 69,653 3.0%
1996 75,150 7.9%
2001 72,406 -3.7%
2006 70,981 -2.0%

So the real turn around came in the immediate post 1981 years.

Then there was a resurgence in the early 1990's.

Then came the drop in the last half of the 1990's.

It is a systemic problem and I am not seeing too much happening of the types of things I think could have happend and still should be happening.

Pulp built this city and pulp is no longer required in such large quantities. Toilet paper, on the other hand- - - -
Pun intended.

Campbell betrayed the people (not the corporations) of BC. His perfidity finally caught up with him as you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Ben, the Bridge and the highways were all projects that were sheduled to happen and was actually in planning stages years ago under other governments as well. Look at the building of roads that is happening all over the province. Its just infrastructure upkeep. The port mann is being twinned, the new bridge from maple ridge to coquitlam is operational as well as the golden ears bridge near langley.
We weren't special...just part of infrastructure upkeep.

Supertech wrote: "Pulp built this city and pulp is no longer required in such large quantities"

Maybe the tables on this page will tell a different story.

http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X4108E/X4108E08.htm

Pulp consumption in the world has gone up by 1.1% per annum on average over the last 14 years.

Paper consumption has gone up by 2.45% per annum for the same period.

Pulp as well as paper continues to flow from Canada south as well as other parts of the world. If it was not for that, the drastic drop in lumber products, whose production was primarily geared to USA and Canada housing market consumption, would have hit the Canadian economy even harder.