By Michael Smyth, The Province November 26, 2009

They were the two biggest post-election surprises to smack B.C. voters in their collective foreheads since Gordon Campbell’s Liberals were returned to power in May: A monstrous $2.8-billion deficit that plunged the province’s budget into a swollen sea of red ink, forcing deep spending cuts that included the cancellation of thousands of surgeries.

And a 12-per-cent harmonized sales tax that wallops B.C. consumers for nearly $2 billion in new taxes, while they’re still reeling from a brutal recession.

What did Campbell tell voters during the election about this shocking double-whammy? Nothing, of course, because he says they weren’t on his famous “radar screen.” But it’s amazing how fast that broken radar got fixed.

Within days of being re-elected, Campbell says, the deficit started to explode — and he started thinking the HST, which he opposed during the campaign, wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Over the past couple of days in Victoria, Campbell has been closely grilled about exactly what he knew and when he knew it on the deficit and the HST. His answers are fascinating.

All through the election, you may recall, Campbell was adamant that he would deliver a relatively small budget deficit — “$495 million, maximum,” as he put it.

He stuck by that number even though his staff told him during the campaign that tax revenues were falling off. He said it wasn’t until May 14 — two days after the election — that he got even worse news.

“That meeting was the first time that I heard the projected deficit was going to probably be in excess of a billion dollars,” Campbell told the legislature during a debate with NDP Leader Carole James.

“I was very concerned about getting those numbers. I actually said to them: ‘Why am I getting these numbers now?’ The reason was quite straightforward: They didn’t run the numbers until election day.” How convenient! I suspect voters would have appreciated knowing that information. And I’m certain they’d have loved to know about the HST — because they would have booted the Libs out of office if they had! But Campbell repeated Wednesday that the HST “was not on our menu” during the campaign. He revealed that it was all Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s idea — a few days after the election was over, of course.

“He [Hansen] did say to me, ‘I think we should at least consider this,’ ” Campbell said. “I said, ‘Well, find out what’s going on.’” That led to Hansen’s famous “coffee-machine conversion” on May 25 in Meech Lake, Que., when he bumped into federal counterpart Jim Flaherty at a coffee machine during a break in a finance ministers’ meeting. Hansen told Flaherty he was thinking of pouring B.C. taxpayers a steaming-hot cup of HST goodness.

So, you see? The deficit and the HST were just as surprising to Gordon Campbell as they were to you.

Check my blog for more. And I hope you feel better now.
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