We're not whiners; the budget did miss B.C. issues
Times Colonist (Victoria)
March 22, 2007
By: Paul Willcocks
EXCERPT

So, are we just a bunch of whiners who can't recognize how much the federal Conservatives did for B.C. in this week's budget?

Or, as the British Columbia government suggests, were important provincial priorities ignored by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his rush to court votes in Ontario and Quebec?

Overall, the budget seemed benign, a grab bag of unrelated spending plans and minor tax cuts designed to persuade people that a Conservative majority wouldn't be so bad. Slip a few hundred extra dollars to parents. Repair a small bit of the damage from the foolish child-care cuts. Send more cash along to the provinces, especially Quebec, with all those critical swing seats. Not much of that old Harper talk about tax cuts and defence spending and slashing the role of government....

The Conservatives even put back a tiny bit of the money they cut from child-care budgets, recognizing that their vague idea to have businesses open day cares for employees was going nowhere. B.C. will get $33 million a year for child care under the budget; the federal-provincial child-care deal cancelled by Harper was worth $150 million a year....

But the goal here is to set the stage for a Conservative majority government in the next election. And B.C.'s few seats are not all that important.