A Matter of Confidence by Rob Shaw

Author:Rob Shaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heritage House
Published: 2018-04-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

FOR WHOM THE BRIDGE TOLLS

NDP campaign director Bob Dewar picked up his copy of The Province newspaper on his way to campaign headquarters, scanned the front page, stopped, and then swore. On the cover of the April 9 edition was a headline: “Liberals pledge cap on bridge tolls.”

The BC Liberals were first out of the gate on what would become one of the most important issues of the 2017 BC election campaign—providing relief for the pocketbooks of Metro Vancouver voters, and in particular the suburban ridings south of the Fraser River, like Surrey. The party’s promise to cap tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges at $500 could save daily commuters more than $1,000 a year.

Dewar absorbed the news and cursed again. With only one month to voting day, he knew he had to make a risky move. As he entered the campaign office, several staffers came up to ask him worried questions about the Liberal announcement.

“What are we going to do?” one person asked.

Dewar turned and said, simply, “We’re going to get rid of the tolls.”

Campaign policy advisor Jon Robinson entered the director’s office as Dewar looked up from his desk.

“Find out how to pay for it,” Dewar ordered. “Find out how to do it. But we’re doing it.”

And so one of the most important moments in the entire election campaign for BC New Democrats—scrapping bridge tolls for Metro Vancouver drivers—was actually a policy made up on the fly in a spur-of-the-moment reaction to their Liberal political opponents. Fewer than five hours later, NDP Leader John Horgan would announce the party’s position to thunderous applause at a rally in Surrey. From crisis to policy pivot in three hundred minutes.

Both the Liberals and the NDP had identified a key to winning the entire election: picking up the many ridings south of the Fraser River, such as vote-rich Surrey, where they’d need to give ordinary voters some type of financial relief on the tolls they faced to drive over the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges every day. Surrey residents felt it was unfair that they got dinged in the wallet every time they wanted to get downtown to watch a Canucks game, visit Stanley Park, or attend a concert.

Unbeknown to each other, both the Liberals and the NDP had settled on exactly the same policy to run on in the 2017 campaign: an annual cap on tolls. The Liberals had debated the amount, between $750 and $500 a year, and whether it could be a tax credit or hard cap, before Clark herself stepped in with a firm decision on a $500 cap.

Completely eliminating bridge tolls had never been the NDP’s internal position. The cap they’d settled on internally was a 50 per cent cut to the toll rate, which, for daily users, would have been a less generous offer than what the Liberals were offering. The party had concluded, much like the Liberals, that the costs would be too high to scrap the tolls outright. Both

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