The Labour Day blues
Lake Country Canada.com (Okanagan)
September 02, 2008

Labour Day.  A time to celebrate.  A time to respect the contributions ordinary British Columbians make in building a province of which we can all be proud.

But times are tougher for most people.  Paycheques don’t go as far.  Recent studies from Statistics Canada show the rich are getting richer, the poor poorer, while middle-class wages slide.  Here in British Columbia, that gap continues to grow.

Most of us don’t need Stats Canada to figure it out.  More than 20,000 forest workers laid-off while record log exports continue have figured it out.  Families looking for affordable childcare know how tough it is.  Young people struggling to pay massive tuition increases while earning the minimum wage frozen for seven years already understand.  Waiting lists in health care get longer and seniors, the people who built this province, face increased hardships in under-funded care facilities.  Ferry passengers know because the government announces fare increases more frequently than the sunshine breakfasts.  Digging deep has become the practice at the gas pump where companies jack prices to record levels at the same time they declare record profits.

Increased costs, stagnant wages, no wonder we have the highest child poverty rates in Canada.

Where’s Gordon Campbell?  Unfortunately, he not only doesn’t understand the lives of ordinary people, he also doesn’t appear to care.

If he did, he would not be increasing wages 43 percent for the highest paid and freezing the minimum wage for more than 250,000 British Columbians earning less than $10 per hour.

With gas prices at record levels you might think that the government would take some action to help ordinary people.  In Victoria, not a chance.  Instead, Campbell’s idea of helping is to add a tax to the price of gasoline and cut taxes, mostly for corporations.  It’s time to tax the record profits of oil companies and stop taxing the declining incomes of British Columbians.

Why do the Liberals ignore the problems facing most British Columbians?  Because they think we will forget what they have done.

Is Gordon Campbell right and will British Columbians forget?  That’s a question the rest of us must answer.  Let’s make a promise this Labour Day that we won’t forget what the Liberals have done to this province, especially our most vulnerable citizens.  Let’s also promise to remember that it’s the hard work, the sacrifices and the commitment of all British Columbians that make this a great place live.