The long wait for the BC Conservative’s costed election platform ended Tuesday with a document so vague it will be hard for even the voters who still care about the issue to muster up much interest.

Conservative Leader John Rustad unveiled the platform during a press conference at the University of British Columbia. Its 114-pages offer nothing new in the way of promises, as Rustad himself admitted was by design, but the accompanying six-page appendix outlined the much-anticipated costing.

Most notable was the revelation that, despite weeks of decrying BC New Democrats as reckless economic managers of the provincial purse due to record deficit spending, the Conservatives would run the deficit even higher in the short-term.

“Our deficit will be slightly larger than what the NDP are projecting for this year and for next year, as we add those critical additional spending, that additional $1.1-1.2 billion annually that will be added into that,” said Rustad.

“However, through our approach, with the investment that we need to see in our economy, the additional revenues that will come from there will offset, by the time we get to third and fourth year, a deficit is projected to be lower than what the NDP deficit is.

“And then projecting going forward through to a second term to being able to get to balance.”

Maybe Rustad had access to a secret second appendix that outlines fourth-to-eighth-year deficit projections, but it was certainly nowhere to be found in the Conservative documents.

In fact, the platform didn’t........

© BIV