Voters can now stack the three parties’ platforms side-by-side-side for comparison, following the release Tuesday of the Conservatives’ 100-page outline of where they would take B.C.

Two ranking business economists have already run some numbers on the costing of all the promises and concluded taxpayers are facing a period of austerity in the near future no matter who wins this Saturday.

A “stunning deterioration” in the B.C. government’s fiscal position under David Eby’s leadership is the main reason for their gloomy warning.

During the campaign, the fiscal picture is a no go zone for the NDP campaign. The only time it gets raised is in the context of “not a problem.”

Conservatives raise alarm about debt and deficits routinely, but the issue doesn’t resonate much in a campaign preoccupied by housing, health care and the drug crisis.

Ken Peacock and Jock Finlayson, with the BC Business Council and Independent Contractors and Businesses Association respectively, rapped both leaders for bypassing the issue.

“The increasingly parlous state of the province’s public finances points to a period of........

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