10 Points Down....Time Out!

After last night's 3-2 win by the Philadelphia Phillies against the Tampa Bay Devil* Rays in Game 1 of the World Series, this page went to the video tape and reviewed last night's televised address by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell. Campbell's 10-point plan is drawing rave reviews from the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and the horde of hate-mongering B.C. Lieberal trolls still screaming about the Fast Ferries. Leaving the right-wing 10 pounds of sh*t in a five pound bag aside, there's nothing for the reality-based community to get excited about in the Premier's response to the current economic situation:

1. Fast-tracking a 5% personal income tax cut retroactive to January 1 - That's a lot of vote-buying for what's supposed to be a 'deficit-free zone'. Why wasn't this tax cut increased and targeted at low and middle-income earners, who will only see their paltry reduction swallowed by Campbell's pet Carbon tax?

2. A 2.5% tax cut for small businesses - Aside from the chi-chi boutiques and restaurants that Campbell and his Point Grey neighbours frequent, most small businesses in B.C. do their business with low and middle income earners. A tax cut doesn't help if their customers don't have any money to bring through the door with them.

3. Reducing Corporate income taxes to 10% - As this page's masthead recently read: Socialism - It's not just for poor people anymore. Does anyone else see a problem with small businesses getting 2.5% and The Royal Bank, Imperial Oil, CanWest Global and Wal-Mart getting 10%? I mean, besides the fact these large corporations bankroll the Campbell Liberals? Mmmmmm...that's gooooood corporate welfare!

4. A new private pension plan for British Columbians without a group pension plan - This seems suspiciously like Preston Manning's idea to replace the CPP with government-mandated RRSPs. The Province could be getting pummelled by the hijinx on Wall Street, but Campbell wants some poor suckers to bankroll more misadventures in the Stock Market.

5. 33% reduction of B.C. Ferry fares during December and January - What? B.C. Ferries couldn't figure out a low season promotion by themselves? That 2.5% tax cut isn't going to warm the hearts of small business people on Vancouver Island watching their customers line up at Swartz Bay and Duke Point to sail for bargains in the Lower Mainland.

6. Unlimited deposit insurance for deposits to B.C. credit unions - News to this page, I thought my deposits were protected through the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation. Of course, I also thought they locked the money in a vault and no one could figure out the PIN number for my ATM card.

7. Rebate of 50 % on all school property taxes to light and heavy industry - One would think maintaining a stable funding base for education would be important, as better education leads to skilled and better paying employment. Maybe these light and heavy industries will spend it on hiring a fresh batch of high school dropouts.

8. Doubling the commission paid to businesses for collecting the provincial sales tax and hotel room tax - Also news to this page. Why should any commission be paid? Seriously, How much can it actually cost to program a cash register to calculate the PST?

9. Speeding up public investments in capital infrastructure projects - Wow, cutting taxes AND increasing spending when a recession is on the way. Now, that's leadership....of a sort. I guess Kevin Falcon can step out of his panic room, since his beloved little corrupt environmental disaster, The Gateway Project, will be going ahead after all.

10. Re-evaluating spending priorities and scaling back unbudgeted increases - See items 1 through 9. Gordon Campbell may have 10 points, but these 10 points don't make up a plan. A plan incorporates vision, compromise, and tough choices. Anyone can resort to Stephen Harper style divide-and-conquer cherry picking masquerading as a plan, and the Premier forgets that on October 14, 55% of B.C. voters saw through the disguise and didn't vote that way.

*The Central Florida Fundies who demanded the name change (dropping the 'Devil') to just 'Rays' can suck it.