Leaders stick to their scripts at B.C. election debate

Last Updated: Sunday, May 3, 2009 | 8:31 PM PT

CBC News

From left: Jane Sterk, Carole James and Gordon Campbell shake hands before their televised leaders' debate in Vancouver on Sunday. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)The leaders of British Columbia's big three political parties squared off in a televised debate Sunday, but viewers could be forgiven if they got a bit drowsy by the end of the hour.

B.C. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell, NDP Leader Carole James and Green Party of B.C. Leader Jane Sterk largely stayed with the issues they have promoted throughout the campaign. There were no surprise announcements, and certainly no "gotcha" moments.

The debate was framed around questions recorded from average British Columbians.

On the first question, about B.C.'s economy, Campbell defended his government's decision to run a deficit in this year's budget, and said the Liberals would return to their record of balanced budgets within three years.

He also noted that the NDP voted in favour of legislation requiring a return to balanced budgets in three years, but then introduced a platform that doesn't balance the budget for four years.

James responded with an attack that has played a prominent part in her campaign, arguing that the province's rural, forestry-dependent communities have been "abandoned" by the current Liberal government.

James called the small towns in the Interior the "economic engine of the province," and said the NDP would offer a rural infrastructure fund aimed at their needs.

Sterk said both were wrong. What's required, she said, is a switch from fossil fuel-based industries to "green" jobs developed on a regional level, and targeted infrastructure spending.

Budget cuts questioned

A question about the rising tide of gang violence in the Lower Mainland brought one of the most interesting exchanges in the debate.

"How can you say that you're fighting crime when your actions don't show it?" James asked Campbell, pointing to the government's decision to cut $10 million in its latest budget for courts and Crown prosecutors, and ditch 100 corrections jobs.

Campbell responded that the Liberals had bumped up the number of police officers on the streets and added resources for prosecutions.

"That's an effective strategy," he said. "It's why our police officers in the integrated task force have been able to arrest 10 major gang leaders."

Sterk said the Liberals and the NDP were both trying to use police as a solution to social problems, an approach she said, pointing to the current situation, doomed to failure.

What's needed, she said, is a ground-level approach to ensuring youths have activities and a closer relationship with their community and the police.

Drug laws draw fire

Another major factor, Sterk added, are the current drug laws, which fuel the battle among gangs for the lucrative illegal trade. Pointing to the days of Prohibition in the U.S. in the 1920s and '30s, she said the problem there was solved when the law was overturned.

"It's time to get drugs out of the hands of the bad guys" and let government control supply and distribution, Sterk said.

A question about health care led to discussion of long-term care for seniors.

Both James and Sterk took shots at Campbell on the subject, with the Liberal leader defending the more than 5,000 beds that he said had been opened by his government.

James replied that B.C.'s seniors "had been treated terribly by the Liberals," something that made her "very angry."

Sterk said provincial cutbacks were "starving" caregivers across the province. She said that if elected, she would go to the caregivers themselves to gauge their needs.

The leaders also traded words over B.C.'s resources, in particular the approach to environmental change.

Campbell defended his government's "cap-and-trade" and carbon tax approach to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, saying environmental groups such as the David Suzuki Foundation had swung their support to the Liberals from their traditional allies, the NDP.

James said the government must be judged by its actions, not its words, pointing out that Campbell's government had cut environment protection in its budget, as well as slashing 50 per cent of park wardens across the province. She said her government would employ not only the cap-and-trade approach, but create a "green bond" for home upgrades and provide greater funding for transit.

Sterk said the only method that would reach the target of reducing emissions by one-third by 2020 was the carbon tax.

James tried twice to draw Campbell out on the BC Rail scandal that has dogged the government for five years, but Campbell refused to rise to the bait.

The scandal touched close to the premier's office when it emerged that long-time B.C. Liberal organizer Patrick Kinsella might have had a conflict of interest in the $1-billion sale of BC Rail to CN Railway in 2004.

The parties now return to the campaign trail for eight more days before the provincial election on May 12.