Quotes

“Saying one thing in a campaign and doing another a few weeks later isn’t a tough decision. It’s hypocrisy.”

“Why does the premier devote so much time and effort to obscuring the real costs of the Olympics, the size of the deficit or the magnitude of the actual cuts to the arts, education and health care? And why can't he admit his government was considering adopting the HST before the election and that they also knew about the increasing magnitude of the deficit before the election? What is so wrong about honesty?”

“Ten weeks after an election, when it was quite clear that British Columbia was going to be faced with this decision in March when Ontario adopted it, and they never thought to mention it to the voting public. I mean, it's just sneaky all around, and I don't think that sits well with people.”

“Marie (‘Let them eat cake’) Antoinette, rest easy. You have company. Step forward, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid.

What was Dr. MacDiarmid thinking? Was she thinking at all, when the respected family physician and ex-president of the B.C. Medical Association responded to the growing outcry over cutbacks to school sports programs with a suggestion that students might compensate by ‘walking or dancing or playing in parks’?

“Yes, nothing like a bunch of high-school rugby players keeping fit by dancing around a larch or playing rumplemy-stiltskin in the nearest park.’

“Campbell, more often than not, delays in making decisions. He avoids dealing with a problem unless he sees a clear and defined conclusion and one that yields a clear benefit for his party.

“As he fiddles, Rome is burning.”

 “The chop to sports funding triggered perhaps my favourite quote of the week, this time from Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, who said young athletes can cope with the cut by ‘doing more walking or dancing or playing in parks.’ (No truth to the rumour she explained the budget cut for the hot-lunch program with the witty sound bite: ‘Let them eat cake.’)”

“Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid's recent comment that students can replace extracurricular sports by participating in the Olympic torch run is laughable…

"’Affordable alternatives’ like ‘walking or dancing’ just don't cut it -- especially in an era when our children are getting fatter and less active.”

“Keynesian principles provide a counter rhythm to the cyclical dance of governments and market economies. Governments pull when markets inevitably collapse and glide when they are up.

“The B.C. government can't even get the basic steps right. Like a dancer with two right feet, they push while the economy is falling.”

“Funds for hungry school kids, classroom computers and schoolyard jungle gyms are being cut this year in B.C., even as the province's education minister maintained yesterday the province's public school system is ‘well-funded.’”

That said, we are definitely in a financial pickle. No question about it.

And it is one entirely of the B.C. Liberals' making. They have no one to blame but themselves.