Wednesday, May 01, 2013

BC's Unbelievable Premier Christy Clark - the things, you say/Your purple prose just gives you away


Clark's credibility slides with statements on BC's "balanced" budget, job creation
Premier Christy Clark in media scrum after TV debate in CBC studios
Bill Tieleman’s 24 Hours Vancouver/TheTyee column 

Tuesday April 30, 2013

By Bill Tieleman

"The things, you say / Your purple prose just gives you away 
The things, you say / You're unbelievable"  

- "Unbelievable" by EMF

If you believe Premier Christy Clark, B.C.'s budget is not only balanced -- it's actually been verified by international credit rating agencies.

And thanks to Clark's B.C. Jobs Plan, this province apparently leads the country in job creation.

But the facts simply disagree with the premier.

During this election Clark has been trying to sell more Whoppers than Burger King.

'Go ask Moody's'

Clark said two noted agencies agreed with her that the B.C. budget has no deficit in a radio interview on CKNW AM 980 April 22.

"Go ask Moody's. Moody's is a debt rating agency that works all over the world and looks at everybody's budgets and decides whether or not those budgets are balanced," Clark told host Bill Good.

"They said it was balanced. They are the world's experts. Dominion Bond Rating agency said the budget was balanced," Clark added.

Hold the cheese on that Whopper because no, they didn't, not Dominion, not Moody's.

In fact, Dominion says the B.C. budget is not balanced at all but will likely have a deficit of $1.7 billion, based on their analysis.

"In response to softening economic conditions, the province announced additional tax measures and continued spending restraint to deliver a small budgeted surplus of $197 million in 2013-14. This translates into a DBRS-adjusted deficit of $1.7 billion, or less than 1.0 per cent of GDP," they wrote.

And Moody's report in early April raises concerns about B.C.'s debt level, which increased $11 billion just in Clark's two years in power.

"The negative outlook reflects the risks to the province's ability to reverse the recent accumulation in debt given a softened economic outlook, weaker commodity prices and continued expense pressures," Moody's states.

Nor does Moody's share Clark's optimism that she can balance the budget by selling off nearly $800 million in provincial property.

"Disposing of surplus properties, often with associated operating costs, would appear to make sense, however, these one-time sales cannot be relied on to resolve structural budget imbalances," Moody's says.

Yet Clark has the nerve to claim in a Vancouver Sun opinion piece that:

"Controlling spending, which we accomplished by balancing the 2013 budget -- which was recently confirmed by Moody's."

Uh-huh. Would you like fries with your Whopper?

(Amazingly, Clark's Vancouver Sun article had not been recommended by anyone on Facebook and re-Tweeted by just one person as of April 28.)

Jobs snow job

Okay, let's look at those job creation claims.

"In the first year of the jobs plan, we led the country in jobs creation," Clark said on April 5.

The reality is that Statistics Canada figures show B.C. is ninth in job creation since Clark launched her plan, losing 34,800 private sector jobs since then.

It appears clear that the things you say, premier, are simply unbelievable.

.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoppers®? Here's the Whopper's® Whopper® - Today's 24 Hours.

DPL said...

The scary thing is that Ms.Photo Op may actually believe the crap she is shoveling. A premier should really attempt to tell the truth fairly often

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Clark, like most liberals, find the truth only in their spin of the facts. Luckily, the gentle voters can see better. Finally, their paid advertisements are repeated so often it is annoying just like the Stick Men ads on the HST were.

Dave Thompson said...

The depressing thing is people are still going to vote for her!

DT said...

The sad thing is people are still going to vote for her!

Dave Thompson said...

The sad thing is people are still going to vote for her!

macadavy said...

Dude! You've gotta quit 24hrs!
http://alexgtsakumis.com/2013/05/01/24-hours-vancouver-vaporizes-their-journalistic-integrity-paid-advertising-piece-for-bc-liberal-govt-includes-24hrs-logo/
Stick with The Tyee!

macadavy said...

You've gotta quit 24 hrs! http://alexgtsakumis.com/2013/05/01/24-hours-vancouver-vaporizes-their-journalistic-integrity-paid-advertising-piece-for-bc-liberal-govt-includes-24hrs-logo/
Stick with The Tyee!

Anonymous said...

Yes, the 24-Hours newspaper has vapourized its credibility but I would not hold up the Tyee as an example of objectivity. It is a bureaucratic filter that provides predictable stories from the same old writers. It fails to provide a diversity of opinion on key issues. It is the left-wing counterpart to the Post Media.

Anonymous said...

Agree The Tyee is a left wing rag. The commentary contributions there would surpass anything that has been read in the NDP's Democrat.

and 24 Hrs? Sheesh, they stooped low to allow that dumb ad to be put in as a front cover.

Are they that desperate for revenue?

Kevin said...

There is nothing new in this election. The monied interests really don't care about corruption, or the truth. They will continue to shovel money at this scum because they want to keep their tax breaks. Nothing to see here, move along.

Anonymous said...

So nothing to see here, but over there it is with the BC Federation of Labour, BCTF, BCGEU CUPE, shovelling money to the NDP..


Anonymous said...

I didn't know 24 Hours had any credibility to begin with.

Anonymous said...

the NDP soft sell is not cutting it.. like Dix is afraid he's going to offend someone. well he'd better stop playing nice and tell the world how the Libs really do the govt. business or he's be cutting it pretty close come election time.

Anonymous said...

Many people here if they want to have an NDP government better start thinking of voting.

Writing to a blog like this isn't going to elect the NDP.

Get your rear in gear and get out there and vote.

DPL said...

The advanced polls don't open till the eight, and yes the people will be starting to vote then, are you ready?

Anonymous said...

BC Federation of Labour, BCTF, BCGEU CUPE....
Get out the vote.
Time for a change!

Anonymous said...

DPL you can vote at the Returning Office in a riding.

BC Federation of Labour BCTF, BCGEU, CUPE.

Get out the vote.

It's your time to shine.

Build with Bill.

Vote to protect your job.

Workers of the Province, Unite!

Jim Sinclair wants YOU to vote NDP.

Surely you vote for the good of [union logo here ] and [map of BC here ]. Come along and vote boys before it's too late.