Pre-election paid advertising

Editor:

While I’m aware the writ for the May 2017 election has not been dropped, there appears to me a lot of campaigning by the Liberal government on television on a daily basis.

I am aware it is being disguised as “information for the public” to show the various ways in which we have beneÀted due to the Liberal government’s astute planning.

I am tired of seeing and listening to the advertisements about “Our Opportunity Is Here” which is on TV so often it is getting more than boring. I strongly believe these ‘ads’ are being paid by you and me. If I recall, in January, Christy Clark said words to the effect “if political parties can’t fund raise in the private sector, the money comes from the taxpayers.”

Well, we sure are doing that, and this comes from a political party who, I believe, has received more than $30 million in the last three years from businesses and wealthy corporate donors — not for you or me, but to help pay for Christy Clark’s extra ‘bonus’ over and above her tax-free salary.

For the ‘Our Opportunity Is Here’ to continue to tell us we should be pleased to hear our MSP is going to be reduced, not now but effective January 2018.

British Columbia is the only province where the citizens still pay these premiums and after all the years (56 for me) of payments received from me, Christy Clark has the gall to think I should be grateful to she and her party.

This was the same party which increased the payment for our household from $50 per month when I retired in 1995 to $150, and, if my calculation is correct, that is a 300 per cent increase. Wow!

They talk about a balanced budget and I ask you what part of their budget is balanced, since every year we see the debt load increases by billions and billions of dollars. In our household, say for example, our food budget is $600 per month and we stay within that amount we can say our budget is balanced. However, if we spend thousands of dollars on travel, purchase new homes, cottages, expensive automobiles and run a deficit of expenses over income by $300,000, our overall budget is not balanced.

The Liberal government, in my opinion, does not have an overall balanced budget, yet they continually claim they have. I know I have not covered all my concerns and, I close this letter hoping you will remember it was Christy Clark as Minister of Education who “tore up” the legal teacher/board of education contracts. This deprived a whole generation of our children to the best education available to them and, thankfully, the Supreme Court of Canada rectiÀed this.

When you go to vote in May, I hope you will remember what is real and what is Àction. Ron Shulhan, Penticton