Top Ten Reasons NOT to vote for the BC New Democrats

1. The NDP oppose cutting your taxes: The NDP have voted unanimously against over 100 tax cuts that the B.C. Liberal government has introduced since 2001.
   
   
2. The NDP will raise your taxes: The NDP have made billions of dollars in spending promises, with no explanation of where the money to fund those promises will come from. That means two things: tax hikes and deficits that your children and grandchildren will have to pay for.
   
   
3. The NDP will cripple the oil and gas industry: The NDP want to cancel incentive programs that support hundreds of summer drilling jobs. They also plan to raise royalty rates and impose over $1 billion in new taxes on the industry – driving jobs out of B.C. and crippling an industry that provides billions for government to invest in services like health care and education.
   
   
4. The NDP will kill clean, green independent power projects: The NDP has called for a ban on independent power project that would eliminate 1,100 rural jobs. This will destroy clean energy projects that provide economic opportunities to rural and First Nation communities in every corner of the province.
   
   
5. The NDP are being dishonest about their hidden carbon tax: The NDP plan to impose a massive, punishing tax that would cost job-creating industries such as mining, forestry and oil and gas at least $1.5 billion, destroying rural jobs and investment.
   
   
6. The NDP oppose a parent’s right to know: Carole James and her NDP MLAs have opposed Foundation Skills Assessment testing, which is a vital tool for teachers and parents to gauge student learning. They also refused to denounce the BCTF plan to stop teachers from providing written comments on student report cards.
   
   
7. The NDP are against twinning the Port Mann Bridge: “The wrong bridge, and the wrong plan,” was the response of NDP leader Carole James to the B.C. Liberal plan to twin the congested Port Mann Bridge and bring transit to that crossing for the first time in over two decades.
   
   
8. The NDP will cancel the Softwood Lumber Agreement: That would claw back $2.4 billion in duties from industry and cost $200 million in government revenues per year, and would re-impose a 30 to 40 per cent export tax on lumber exports eliminating certainty for the industry and destroying jobs in communities across BC.
   
   
9. The NDP are against the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: “I didn’t support the government trying to gain the Olympics.” – NDP leader Carole James, Jan. 16, 2004.
   
   
10. The NDP have voted against critical projects: Including the new Abbotsford Regional Hospital, Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, the Canada Line, and the new Surrey Outpatient Hospital.