Editor:
The NDP’s Leap Manifesto – accepted by New Democrats across Canada as a guide for our future – sets out a sweeping plan to re-engineer our economy and lives. It seeks to end the use of gasoline and all fossil fuels. It will stop construction of pipelines and new highways. The idea that government needs to control expenditure to keep taxes low will be abandoned.
The manifesto also proposes to phase out the entire resource sector while it raises taxes to support a country-wide minimum income. That means the government will pay everyone a salary for life, whether they work or not.
This raises an important question. Exactly where does BC NDP Leader John Horgan stand on the NDP Leap Manifesto?
Asked that very question nine months ago, Horgan responded: “There are elements in the document that make sense and there are elements that make no sense for British Columbia. So, we won’t proceed under any kind of manifesto in the next 12 months under my leadership.”
As we approach the May 9 provincial election, British Columbians need a more specific answer from someone who wants to be premier.
What parts of the NDP Leap Manifesto does Horgan support? The end of use of fossil fuels? A ban on all pipeline construction? The end of our resource economy? Taxpayers funding a minimum salary.
And does Horgan agree with the manifesto’s plan to scuttle future LNG projects and phase out the mining industry, as many in the NDP party demand? Does he agree with the manifesto’s scheme of hiring of more civil servants to make up for the jobs lost in the resource sector?
The truth is, we simply don’t know where Horgan stands.
Jim Shepard, Concerned Citizens 4 British Columbia 2017