Arnie makes Carole James's Port Mann flip flop look even sillier

With Arnold Schwarzenegger praising the BC Liberal Government for doing Public Private Partnerships (P3) well, it seems all the sillier to look at how Carole James flipped her position on building the Port Mann Bridge component of the provincial Gateway Program.

James and her MLAs have gone out of their way to diss the bridge twinning project, going so far as to call it “…a colossal waste of taxpayers' money.” Of course, back in the 1990s the NDP were pushing for the bridge to be twinned, but obviously holding one opinion for any length of time is hard for the NDP.

And now the Georgia Straight caught James out again for a flip flop. Despite her 2007 talk of the Port Mann twinning being a bad way to spend public money, she told the Straight last month that now it seems like a good idea to her:

“You have to have a bridge. You have to have a crossing across there. It's very clear that the traffic is high enough that you need to have a bridge there.”

So it was no surprise that James’ flip flop brought out B.C. transportation minister Kevin Falcon to call a spade a spade. He termed it one of the “most extraordinary backflips I’ve seen in politics.”

Falcon added:

“I have sat for two years and listened to Carole James and the NDP say this would never get done, just like I had to listen to them say for two years that the Canada Line would never get done. So as we deliver the Canada Line ahead of schedule and on-budget, and as we move this project forward—and it’s going to be on-schedule and on-budget—I imagine I’m going to hear the same thing from the NDP.”

Carole James and the NDP. Wrong party, wrong leader, wrong time.

Good Bridge, Bad Bridge - NDP flip flop on Port Mann

In 1993, an NDP member rose in the Legislative Assembly to state clearly that the Port Mann Bridge needs to be twinned. The transportation minister Art Charbonneau said:

“…we need to twin the Port Mann Bridge…When we are able (to do this)…then we will have resolved the traffic congestion problems around that area, while allowing a safe and efficient transportation system.”

But back in the present day of 2009, the NDP transportation critic Maurine Karagianis continues to reject the new Port Mann Bridge and the 8,000 jobs that will be created during construction. In fact, in Question Period this week she called the Port Mann Bridge project “…a colossal waste of taxpayers' money.”Gee, has traffic congestion eased in the past 15 years? We certainly keep seeing more cars and trucks queuing up to get into or out of Surrey over the Port Mann. Do the NDP have special rose-coloured traffic cameras that show them a different picture? Or are they trying so hard to distance themselves from the 1990s that they lost sight of common sense?

Carol James and the NDP. Wrong party. Wrong leader. Wrong time.
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