Wages have remained largely stagnant for B.C. workers, and B.C. has the unhappy distinction of being a province where more than half of families are living paycheque to paycheque
As we approach the end of 2016, I know a lot of people will look back and say, “That was a wild ride.”
There was the seemingly endless U.S. presidential election and that speculation about what the outcome might mean for Canada, for British Columbia and for the world. And there were the unfolding results of our own federal election as a new national government began to act.
We lost important artists and role models like B.C. golfer Dawn Coe-Jones, poet and musician Leonard Cohen and our own Bing Thom, architect extraordinaire. We found out that Gord Downie has terminal cancer, and saw The Tragically Hip tour the country one last time.
For me, it’s been a year of travel, talking with thousands of people in every corner of this province. Listening to the concerns of people in a café in Houston, or a head office in New Westminster, or heading out on a spill cleanup vessel in Bella Bella gives you a different perspective on who we are and what matters most to us.
I was taken aback to hear so often how many individuals and families struggle to make it here, in the most unequal province in Canada.
It was a tough year for B.C. families – the cost of living skyrocketed. One in seven children went to bed hungry. That’s not what anyone wants.
It was the year Christy Clark’s 15-year war on public education was blocked by the Supreme Court of Canada, re-spun by the premier as “an opportunity” to start investing in classrooms instead of courtrooms. And in 2016 we saw the premier’s promise to make sure everyone had a family doctor fall flat for tens of thousands of families across B.C.
Two economic markers particularly stood out as I talked to people this year. Wages have remained largely stagnant for B.C. workers, and B.C. has the unhappy distinction of being a province where more than half of families are living paycheque to paycheque.
But talking to people has also energized and inspired me this year. As I have visited businesses, families and workers throughout the province, I’ve learned we share a belief that there are opportunities for better years ahead. Opportunities that have been frustrated by the Clark government’s focus on megaprojects while neglecting the industries of today and tomorrow.
Forestry, the lifeblood of this province for so long, has bled jobs and looks out on a landscape where timber supply is at risk and the U.S. softwood lumber agreement looms as an existential threat – all fed by government neglect. High-growth new technology industries struggle to capture the attention of a government narrowly pushing liquefied natural gas development against the forces of world commodity prices.
There is opportunity like never before in B.C. It requires a government that recognizes market forces but does not blindly follow them to the exclusion of the best interests of British Columbians. It requires a government that uses the natural resources and the skills and abilities of British Columbians to grow our traditional industries and build new ones into the future. It requires investment in our public education system from childhood through to post-secondary training because homegrown talent wants to stay at home and build this province. It demands a government that always, always thinks of the average person and average family first. Those are the people we all rely on to build this province.
I’m looking forward to 2017. I want to lead a government that is on the side of average British Columbians and the kind of future they want for themselves and their families.
John Horgan is the leader of the BC New Democratic Party.
