[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by belsarius

I think it veered off in that Rustad is very much piggy backing on the federal CPC popularity and his use of similar dog whistles and sound bites.

Right you are, Ken.

Originally Posted by belsarius

As a relative newcomer to BC I have had to do a lot of digging into what exactly each party is bringing and doing, and you can quickly see a lot of the similarities.

The NDP here hasn't been perfect on all fronts, I think the opiod crisis is very real, but also very complicated to deal with. The NDP are adjusting strategies and trying to find humane solutions as opposed to just increasing the jail count.

On housing I have seen a lot of positive legislation being passed and it seems over the last couple years a lot of work has been done by the provincial government to deal with housing. They have better plans and ideas that have a lot of merit.

In the seven years since they took control of the legislature, they have been the single best government at fulfilling election promises in recent Canadian memory, not just BC. Both Horgan and Eby have done a magnificent job at keeping their end of the bargain while also making hard decisions and explaining to the people of BC why they had to be made. Mistakes have been made along the way, but they're mistakes that the NDP were willing to admit didn't work and find a new course.

Originally Posted by belsarius

The conservatives just seem to be using the same playbook of "the NDP is destroying BC", "we need a common sense approach", "Communists!", but not really putting up a platform with any sense of ability to deal with complex issues. This has been PPs playbook for years now, attack, attack, attack but not really give a proper viable alternative. You see it with the "axe the tax". Ok great, no more consumer carbon tax, but also no plan on what he would do to get our emissions down or even recognize that there is a climate emergency.

BCC, BCL and BCU have all had the same pattern in those seven years. Say how bad everything is, even when most things were very obviously going well (well being relative). None of the above parties have been able to explain what, exactly, is bad or why it's bad, just merely that it is bad. This is, of course, until the past two years, as COVID lock downs and restrictions came to an end, when people started to notice how bad the opioid and homeless problems were. They were really bad all the way through COVID, but no one was around to notice. In trying to combat this, the NDP have been fought tooth and nail by the city of Vancouver. They also attempted something that, while successful in other countries, should have been done more slowly with knowledge that both the people of Vancouver are NIMBY by nature and that their political opponents would pounce on it if it didn't work. Short term, it was a disaster. Long term, we'll never know. The science and medical reasoning behind what they attempted works, but this is not a city that has ever been willing to suffer short term for long term benefit (see things as basic as earthquake preparedness in a city waiting for a major fault shift event). Attempting to just go whole hog into full decriminalization the the rope. And it's now a rope they may hang from.

Originally Posted by belsarius

The problem is that life and governments, both provincially and federally are not nearly as bad as the social media is pumping it out to be. Most of the issues can be traced to factors outside of the governments control, or to areas where if the government tried to give more control we would see complaints about the free market.

The BC NDP have had seven years of fantastic governance following what was close to twenty years of the BC Liberals bleeding this province and its services dry. They have all but undone the political scorched earth legacy that Glen Clarke and Mike Harcourt created that the BC Liberals were able to use to pummel the NDP for about 15 years. The economy, wages, housing and other issues you have spoken about are not really what is making this election close. Most people know John Rustad is full of #### on these things. They still may end up voting for him.

The issue is that David Eby has a weak spot on the public safety portfolio. Whether it's real or imagined his past work, past political statements, and past attempts to fix the issue are currently weighing him down. It's at the forefront. It's in the news every day. It's in the streets when people walk around any of the major metro areas in BC. It's in the businesses. It's a very easy thing to attack, even if it's not all directly the province's responsibility.

Originally Posted by belsarius

But people are eating up the outrage machine..

I agree and the main issue that is causing a lot of this has so much nuance and while it hasn't been ignored by the BC NDP what they have tried so far has not exactly worked.

It's very easy to get outraged when you walk out of where you live and don't feel safe. Whether it's because of personal first hand experience, reading about an awful story not far from where you live or just the general uneasiness of being around people who due to one mental health issue or another are unpredictable and thus not safe to be around.

I agree that given time the BC NDP are likely to find a way to work on this positively because they have shown on so many other issues that given time they are problem solvers. But this issue, in an election year is devastating. And I have a hard time being upset with some of the people being outraged over it.