Gordon Campbell may have resigned as premier and leader of the BC Liberal Party, but his departure does nothing to repair the damage his policies and actions have created throughout B.C., CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill said today.
“I rarely agree with Mr. Campbell, but he was right about one thing in his resignation speech: political debate in B.C. should not be about any one person, it should be about competing visions and ideas for our province’s future,” said O’Neill. “And though they will try to run away from their own record, Mr. Campbell’s resignation does not in any way absolve BC Liberal MLAs from the wrongheaded, mean-spirited policies they supported and implemented in B.C.
“That’s true regardless of whether you’re talking about the HST, or the economic policies that have led to B.C. leading the country in child poverty, the stripping of workers’ rights or the fact that homelessness has exploded under the BC Liberals,” said O’Neill. “The fact is, every single B.C. Liberal MLA who voted for Mr. Campbell’s agenda has to share equal responsibility for the fact that their government has made it harder than ever before for working families to get ahead. Changing the name on the door of the Premier’s Office doesn’t change the BC Liberal Party’s collective responsibility for the mess they’ve made.”
O’Neill said that the premier’s resignation was inevitable once British Columbians realized the magnitude of the BC Liberals’ HST deception.
“I really believe that if Mr. Campbell had been honest with voters about the HST during the last election, his resignation would have been delivered during a concession speech on election night in 2009,” said O’Neill. “But hiding the truth from voters has never been a winning strategy over the long-term, and Mr. Campbell has today reaped what he’s sown.”