“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”
- Disney’s Peter Pan

Ya gotta love history buffs. They know that there is nothing new under the sun, that everything that happens today has happened before. It’s just a matter of finding the pattern.

Bob Plecas, a BC deputy minister turned author and pundit, is just such a guy. His book, Bill Bennett: A Mandarin’s View, is a must-read for any BC political buff.

Plecas has a piece in the Vancouver Sun today, observing that the BC NDP have a 75 per cent chance of forming government in 2013 due to the split on the centre-right between the BC Liberals and BC Conservatives. He rightly points out that every time the centre-right has split in BC, the NDP have won.

With 15 months until the next election, Plecas says Premier Christy Clark must take drastic action to rebuild the governing coalition. Politics aside, a few of his suggestions look like they were torn right out of the CTF playbook.

Plecas: “Legislate a two-year tax freeze on the province and municipalities. The NDP can announce targeted tax increases all it wants.”

Imagine knowing your tax burden wasn’t going to increase for two years—talk about a relief for families, for seniors on fixed incomes, for people working extra hours to get ahead. Some municipalities would scream and yell about not being able to ratchet up property taxes, but let them: most taxpayers are fed up with sending more and more money to government every year.

Plecas: “Legislate to end the teachers' dispute. Stand on the side of students and parents, let the NDP stand with the teachers' union.”

This will very likely happen: history shows the B.C. Teachers Federation incapable of negotiating deals with governments of any political stripe.

Plecas: “Legislate the end to the current public sector pension plan for MLAs and staff, and create a new plan, based on a private-sector model, for new hires and newly elected.”

Gold-plated pensions, double-dipping: these drive taxpayers crazy. Today, retired BC Ferries CEO David Hahn, after making more than a million bucks in annual salary for a few years, has a pension worth $314,000 annually. Time to change it.

Plecas: “Terminate all bonuses for senior executives in the entire public sector.”

YES!

Today is Ken Boessenkool’s first day on the job as Premier Clark’s chief of staff. Hopefully he has clipped out this article and will act on it.

By: Jordan Bateman
Posted: February 15, 2012
Topic: British Columbia

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