Premier Christy Clark formally began the B.C. election campaign Tuesday with a visit to Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon to end the current government and begin a 28-day run to form a new one.
Clark began with the dramatic claim that the May 14 vote is “a choice that will do nothing less than define our province for another generation,” and quickly went on the attack against NDP leader Adrian Dix.
“I can’t remember a campaign where the choices are as stark as this one, where we have a chance to grow government, grow taxes, kill the opportunity for liquefied natural gas exports, or we have the chance to shrink government, grow the economy, lower taxes and pay off the debt for our kids,” Clark told reporters gathered outside Government House in Victoria.
The NDP has supported LNG exports, but wants to extend B.C.’s carbon tax to natural gas drilling emissions that would add up to $100 million more a year. Clark has suggested taxes and royalties from LNG exports should go toward a “prosperity fund” that could pay off B.C.’s debt in 15 years.
B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins has emphasized that B.C.’s debt nearly doubled under the NDP government of the 1990s, and has almost doubled again in the 12 years of B.C. Liberal rule.
Dix boarded his campaign bus Tuesday for a series of stops in Vancouver and Burnaby. Cummins and B.C. Green Party leader Jane Sterk are also traveling the province as they prepare for a leaders’ radio debate on April 26 and a TV debate April 29.
Dix was forced on the defensive after the B.C. Liberals publicized offensive comments made by the NDP’s Kelowna-Mission candidate on a local internet site four years ago.
Dix issued a brief statement Tuesday announcing Dayleen van Ryswyk has resigned and the party will nominate a new candidate. Van Ryswyk’s embarks about aboriginal and French-Canadian people were “unacceptable,” Dix said.
