Government

BC Liberals Win 2009 Election

The NDP's opposition to the carbon tax was a factor in the election, and should set off an internal debate in the party.

By Tony Wanless /

may 2009 election bc

The NDP’s opposition to the carbon tax was a factor in the election, and should set off an internal debate in the party.

By the end of today, you’ll have been inundated with analysis of why the Liberals won the BC election. Most will centre on how the economy swung it for them. Voters facing perilous economic times, according to the general opinion (including the official reason from the NDP), opted to stick with what they knew rather than take chances. That’s all very neat, and probably is correct to an extent, but there was another factor at play – the NDP’s cynical and wrongheaded campaign to reverse the government’s new carbon tax. Summarized as Axe The Tax, the campaign tried to paint the carbon tax as an evil Gordon Campbell plot to reach government hands into the ordinary person’s pocket via an opportunistic “tax” on fuel. But even the most hardened British Columbian recognized the carbon tax for what it was – the putting of a price on fossil fuel use, which is contributing to climate change. The carbon tax wasn’t onerous and did encourage drivers to conserve, which they knew they had to do anyway. Yes, it created discomfort and some outrage among people used to the convenience of the car, but it wasn’t serious for most. There was more hardship for residents of rural areas, but they also knew that soon they would have to adjust their habits. There’s another aspect here. Environmental consciousness was supposed to be a core belief of the NDP. Notwithstanding their demand to tax corporations instead, the Axe The Tax movement was a complete reversal of that belief, putting it into territory that was more traditionally right wing. As a result the party looked like one of two things – complete cynics who would use any populist trigger to gain power, or conflicted muddleheads who were unable to get their act together on something that’s considered very important in this province. Whichever, I think the party better thoroughly examine its values if it hopes to ever resonate in BC again.