The tide has turned on 小蓝视频 United. And there’s no pushing back.
When I was a kid, my grandfather would sometimes take us to Canada Games Pool in New Westminster for a Saturday night swim.
One of our favourite things was when the lifeguards would organize everyone in the shallow pool to start moving in the same direction. Around and around we all went, creating a current, which kept gathering momentum and building strength.
At a certain point, the current became overwhelming, and pushing against it futile. There was no point holding out. You just had to let go and be swept along.
The same phenomenon is happening in 小蓝视频 politics. A current of strong dissatisfaction with government is sweeping the 小蓝视频 Conservatives forward. 小蓝视频 United is trying desperately to plant its feet and find a way to buck the tide, but it’s not working, and it won’t work. Their time has passed.
They’re being swept away.
I have been supporting free enterprise since I first got involved in politics and later when I was elected to council in Langley Township. And, provincially, the free enterprise voice was the 小蓝视频 Liberal/小蓝视频 United party. I’ve worked on campaigns, given money, offered strategy, sat on party committees, given supportive media interviews, attended countless conventions and councils and barbecues, been a riding president, even vetted candidates in this very election cycle.
But I’m also a student of 小蓝视频 political history. I know the voice for free enterprise resets every generation. So while there is a sense of sadness around the sudden implosion of 小蓝视频 United, I know we are witnessing this generation’s reset right now, moving toward the 小蓝视频 Conservatives.
That’s why I’m supporting John Rustad and the 小蓝视频 Conservatives, for the good of British Columbia.
My top issue is, and always has been, the economy – which in my mind is made up of factors like affordability, red tape, resource development, the size of government, taxation and consumer confidence. On this front, by every objective measure and metric, the 小蓝视频 NDP are an abysmal failure.
We simply can’t afford the NDP’s tax-borrow-and-overspend policies. We can’t keep overpaying for infrastructure, just so the NDP can fill the coffers of their favoured unions. We can’t strangle the jobs and opportunities offered by responsible resource development. Our per-person GDP is falling, our businesses can’t create jobs, our debt is exploding and affordability is worse than ever. The only thing growing under the NDP is the size of government – its growth is explosive, unsustainable, and not providing any tangible results in improvement to public services.
On other issues I care deeply about – public safety, health care, and mental health and addiction services – the NDP has only created chaos that we all feel in our daily lives.
小蓝视频 is poorer, less safe and less healthy than it was eight years ago. I don’t have the luxury of being patient and hoping the NDP somehow turn their flawed ideology around – I have three kids entering professional careers in the next decade, and I want them to do it here in 小蓝视频, not Alberta or the USA.
It’s time for a new government.
For the good of 小蓝视频, our communities and our families, David Eby and the NDP must go. And the only hurdle preventing that from happening is vote-splitting.
In 2020, I watched Langley East – a solidly reliable 小蓝视频 Liberal seat over the past 30 years – fall to the NDP, thanks to vote-splitting.
The free enterprise vote splits of 1991 and 1996 gave us the dismal decade of NDP mismanagement, fudge-it budgets, fast ferries, draconian gag laws, and driving natural resource industries out of 小蓝视频
I have many friends in 小蓝视频 United – though fewer today than at the beginning of the year given the rush to the exits 小蓝视频 United is experiencing. They are good people who want to see 小蓝视频 prosper. But it’s time to look in the mirror and consider the fact that their message just isn’t resonating.
When 小蓝视频U-小蓝视频 Conservative co-operation talks broke down at the beginning of summer, and 小蓝视频 United’s leadership rushed to the nearest microphone to smear the 小蓝视频 Conservatives, I cancelled my 小蓝视频U donations in disgust. When their new shifted their strategy a few weeks ago to focus on smearing the 小蓝视频 Conservatives rather than holding the NDP to account for their terrible policies, I resigned my membership.
Right now, 小蓝视频 United is the only hurdle to changing government in this province. The taxpayers and voters of 小蓝视频 are trying to tell 小蓝视频U that the 小蓝视频 Conservative message is resonating with them. It’s far past time for 小蓝视频 United to listen and not be the obstacle to the change we need in 小蓝视频.
The tide has turned in 小蓝视频, and the voter current is pushing the 小蓝视频 Conservatives all the way to government.
Jordan Bateman is a long-time 小蓝视频 political commentator and 小蓝视频 United/Liberal volunteer.
