Let’s get back to basics and make government work for you

BY KERRY-LYNNE FINDLAY

MY name is Kerry-Lynne Findlay, and I’m the Leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia.

I’ve spent much of my life in public service, as a lawyer, a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, a Member of Parliament and a federal Cabinet Minister.

I believe government has a basic responsibility: protect the public, deliver essential services, create the conditions for people to prosper, and respect the taxpayers who pay for it.

After years of NDP government, too many of those basics are failing.

That is why I’m running in this election.

People here work hard. They raise families, build businesses, farm, manufacture, work in our resource industries and contribute to their communities.

But they are paying more and getting less from their provincial government.

Families are struggling with groceries, housing and everyday expenses. Small businesses face rising costs, red tape and the consequences of public drug use and disorder.

And across BC, something as fundamental as knowing your emergency room will be open has become uncertain.

Many BC hospitals have experienced repeated emergency-department service interruptions because of physician staffing shortages, including overnight closures.

This isn’t about criticizing the doctors, nurses and frontline workers holding our health-care system together.

It is about holding the NDP government responsible for the system it runs.

After years in power, the NDP cannot keep pointing somewhere else when services fail. Government is responsible for making sure British Columbians can access the essential services their taxes pay for.

The same lack of results can be seen in our economy.

British Columbia was built on forestry. B.C. ‘s timber harvest has fallen dramatically over the past decade, while forestry communities continue to face mill closures, curtailments and lost investment.

These aren’t abstract statistics. Behind every mill curtailment, lost investment or disappearing job is a worker, a family and a community.

BC’s farmers, manufacturers and small businesses understand the same thing: government cannot keep making it more difficult and expensive to employ people, invest and produce things in British Columbia and then wonder why our economy struggles.

The Fraser Valley is growing rapidly, yet families and businesses continue to deal with congestion on Highway 1. A growing region needs infrastructure that keeps pace with the people and businesses depending on it.

Public safety is another basic responsibility.

Compassion for people struggling with addiction matters. But compassion cannot mean abandoning families, seniors, workers and small-business owners to the consequences of crime, disorder and public drug use.

People should be able to walk downtown, operate a business and raise their children without being told that disorder is simply something they have to accept.

The NDP has had years to govern British Columbia.

At some point, government has to be judged by results.

Can you get the health care you need?

Can you afford to raise your family?

Can your children see a future here?

Can a small business survive?

Can workers find good-paying jobs?

Do you feel safe in your community?

Those are the basics.

I am not running to manage the decline of those basic services or make excuses for

government failure.

I am running because I believe British Columbia can do better.

We can rebuild an economy that rewards work, investment and entrepreneurship.

We can stand behind our farmers, forestry workers and resource communities.

We can restore accountability to health care and focus relentlessly on delivering services patients can actually access.

We can confront crime, disorder and addiction with both compassion and common sense.

And we can remember something the NDP has lost sight of: government works for the people, not the other way around.

British Columbia needs a strong voice focused on accountability and the fundamentals families depend on.

Let’s get back to basics and make government work for you.