Here is some reading material. Perhaps you weren’t around when we had a party with the same platform the Conservatives have. People have forgotten, or never knew, what BC looked like the last time a government ran on the platform the Conservatives are running on now. Exact same scenario, Conservative take over from NDP. I think it’s worth remembering before you vote. In fall 2001, BC gave Gordon Campbell a massive majority, and he used it to dismantle much of what the NDP had built. This week the Conservatives’ own campaign material pointed to Campbell’s 2001 approach as their model. So here’s what that looked like. To pay for a 25% income tax cut, the 2002 budget cut every ministry outside health and education by an average of 25% over three years. HEALTH CARE • Bill 29 tore up the Hospital Employees’ Union contract, leading to the layoff of more than 8,000 health workers, mostly women. Many jobs were contracted out at lower wages. The Supreme Court of Canada later struck down key parts of the law as unconstitutional. • MSP premiums went up 50% overnight. • Hospitals were closed or downsized across the province, including Summerland and St. Mary’s in New Westminster. HOUSING • The new Residential Tenancy Act dropped the requirement for landlords to justify rent increases with actual costs, and later locked in automatic yearly increases of inflation plus 2%. CHILDREN, YOUTH & EDUCATION • Scrapped the NDP’s plan for universal $14/day child care, then cancelled the $7/day before- and after-school care program. • Stripped class size and composition limits from teachers’ contracts. The BCTF says more than 3,500 teaching positions were lost. The courts later ruled that law unconstitutional too. • Ended the tuition freeze. Tuition jumped 40% one year and 35% the next, and roughly doubled within a few years. Student grants were eliminated entirely by 2004. • Created a $6/hr “training wage” for new workers’ first 500 hours and froze the minimum wage at $8 for nearly a decade. WOMEN • Cut 100% of core funding for all 37 women’s centres in BC. • Ended the pay equity program. • Eliminated the Ministry of Women’s Equality. VULNERABLE PEOPLE • Took away welfare earnings exemptions, so most people on assistance lost every dollar they earned. They also cut family shelter allowances and imposed a two-years-in-five time limit. • Cut legal aid funding by about 40%, gutting family law help that women relied on. • Abolished the BC Human Rights Commission. That’s just a taste of last time.