The BC Election

All we seemed to hear about for the first week of the BC Election campaign was how Carole James has put herself in hot water by opposing the Provincial Carbon Tax. There's been precious little reporting about how public health care has been deteriorating for years in BC or how Gordon Campbell's cherished Vancouver Convention Center has hemorraged more money than the fast ferries or how anyone wanting to launch a major lawsuit in the province has to spend thousands of dollars in court costs (which no one else in the country would have to pay)or how the closure of dozens of Provincial Jails in the province impacted the fight against crime or.... well should I go on?

The BC Media can be lazy and indolent once the major players -- The Vancouver Sun, CKNW, Global News -- have decided which buttons they want to push, and they seem to be lolling about in the doldrums again. Now that they have the Carole James Carbon Tax bone wedged in their mouths they won't spit it out. This of course is the exact opposite of what we were hearing about the Carbon Tax last year, when Gordon Campbell was regarded as a moron for imposing a few more cents on the ever-increasing price of gas. Then James was almost seen as a visionary for breaking with the environmental lobby and going against it. So now that gas is cheaper and she won't abandon her position she's being pilloried. What was she supposed to do -- change course again? That would have brought her under even more fire.

Hopefully now the Canucks are in a lull until their next series, the NDP can sharpen the focus of its campaign and we can move beyond this one-trick pony issue.