Coltin Lillico: The choice facing the next B.C. Conservative leader
British Columbia's decline is philosophical, and cannot be reduced to bad policy decisions alone.
On 30 May, the Conservative Party of British Columbia will announce the winner of its leadership race, the new leader of the party, and likely the next premier of British Columbia.
It is an important moment in B.C. politics. But the consequences of the decision will reverberate across Canada and will be of particular importance for the future of conservatism in our country.
The next leader of the Conservative Party will have the opportunity to choose between two different paths.
One will be a cautious, incrementalist approach that favours changes around the edges and focuses on bringing stability and competence to a government that has lost its fiscal anchor and mismanaged the economy.
There is certainly some wisdom in this approach.
The last time a non-left government won power in British Columbia was in 2013. In Canada, it was 2011. An entire generation of children has been born since then.
What kind of province are those children being brought up in?
By nearly every conceivable metric, our province is worse for this new generation than it was for the ones before. Economic data reveals that our people are becoming poorer as GDP per capita declines. B.C.’s small businesses are worse off than those in other provinces. And our resource industries cannot get projects built.
The cautious, incrementalist approach might be able to solve some of these economic woes and get our economy back on track.
However, the fundamental problems in our society run much deeper than the economy.