In response to a recent headline – “Liberals budget benefits all” – there never has been and never will be such a budget from the B.C. Liberals!  For the last twelve years these Liberals have cut, slashed and destroyed essential social programs to spend that money on priorities to pride themselves and 2% of British Columbians. Added to this are billions of taxpayers’ dollars spent over more than a decade of intense investments on high-profile infrastructure projects, sporting events (Olympic Games) and edifices; event centres around B.C. (Deficit budgets resulted). Will these investments garner feasible financial returns annually or will they be nothing more than liabilities?   Let’s face it people, the Liberal spending extravaganza certainly favoured pleasures for the wealthy at the expense and demise of the rest of us. Money was no obstacle, like water from the ocean. Except that its got people wondering how we’re going to deal with an $800 000 million dollar deficit on top of a $54 to $68 billion dollar provincial debt, and still counting?   This very Liberal government chose to give low funding priority to education, health care, support for poor children and families, etc. Which choices were most necessary? These latter priorities are the critical building blocks that will contribute to and establish a very strong economy which will get us out of this recession.   These Liberals did not and do not choose to consider the human value and potential of every man, woman and child in this province. They considered “profits before people”. Privatization and exploitation is the name of their game.   It is very clear that this upcoming election is all about, “social justice and human dignity”, of which the B.C. Liberals seem completely void. Twelve years of Liberal mismanagement of our finances on priorities that favour the wealthy will cause serious problems for years to come. The ever growing gap between rich and poor must be addressed immediately. Liberal smooth, sweet talk about this “budget benefits “all” isn’t going to change B.C. for the better by going in the wrong direction than they indicate.   So, guess who got us into “these periods of economic uncertainty” that Linda Larson refers to? The Liberals? And, “who is best to manage our economy?”, certainly not the Liberals! Also, “who can we TRUST to make the tough decisions”? (When the Liberals use the word TRUST, we’ve previously learned that they mean entirely the opposite). Let’s play it totally safe and exercise “Zero TRUST” in them on May 14th. There is only one place for them, “Out of office with budget under arm”!

James Demetrick

Policy of Oliver Daily News to print letters from citizens of the Oliver, Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls area.