Hoodwinked again.  Fool you once, shame on them.  Fool you twice, shame on you.  Well I think we must be up for for the idiot award with the number of times the British Columbia Liberal Government has fooled us.  Oh baby, I’m indeed hanging my head in shame. 

Seems we’ve just learned that the Liberals created revenue targets that we had no chance of meeting.  It would be similar to telling your banker that you’re expecting to bring in  $5000/week in the coming year when you KNOW that you will only make $500.  I wonder if that qualifies for fraud?  I remember being at a Chamber of Commerce lunch after the gigantic deficit was announced and Colin Hansen explained how careful they had been with their budgeting, yet somehow they were caught with their pants down when the global economic downturn came.  Not our fault he said, unpredictable things happen. No one in the audience asked for comparisons for what was budgeted the previous year, and if they had they would have learned that the Liberals were estimating higher revenues in all areas. IN AN ECONOMICALLY UNSTABLE TIME.

Who does that when the economy is starting to stagger?  And who bets on commodities when they’ve been faltering for years?  And who hasn’t worked to diversify BC’s economy so we’re not so commodity reliant?  Who’s out to cut the joy from our communities as they slash the arts.  Who’s hurting our homeless, our battered women, our folks with gambling addictions as they grab millions from gaming so they can give the corporations more tax breaks. Yes the Liberals have done it all and more. 

I keep wondering why, and what I’ve come to think is that when the Provincial Liberal team is put out to pasture the corporations so heartily supported will welcome them with open arms and fat honorariums to sit on their boards.  Yes, these boards are a great way to say thank you for all the handouts.  Ample money for meeting a few times a year - ah the male patriarchy alive and well and sucking the life out of our communities.

But as I wrap up this rant (and I hope that people from all over this province will voice their outrage and not relent) I wonder why they inflated the revenues to such a large degree?  What were they trying to fool us into believing we could afford?  The Olympics?  A corporate tax cut?  What? I think I’d like the answer to that one.