Vaughn Palmer: But leak of B.C. United's detailed opposition research on the Conservatives handed the NDP plenty of material for attack ads

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VICTORIA — The opinion polls from the first week of the election campaign show the New Democrats in a dead heat with the Conservatives, raising questions about the effectiveness of the big-spending agenda that David Eby has pursued since becoming premier.

When Eby took office in November 2022, he inherited an almost $6 billion surplus from John Horgan. He spent most of it in the few months remaining in the financial year, then budgeted for a $4 billion deficit in the year ahead.

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It wasn’t enough. The shortfall ended up at $5 billion when the books were closed.

For the current financial year, Eby budgeted for a record $8 billion deficit. The most recent update says he has already blown past that target and is headed for $9 billion.

So, almost $6 billion plus $5 billion plus a projected $9 billion — $20 billion in deficits in all.

Nor has Eby deigned to produce a plan to eventually bring the books back into balance, though he claims to believe in doing such a thing someday. The NDP response is that none of this matters. The public no longer cares about debt and deficits. It only wants more spending on programs and capital projects.

But if the public were as enthusiastic about all this spending as the New Democrats........

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