The provincial government made a rookie mistake in this week鈥檚 budget. Sixteen years out of power, the NDP apparently forgot that dropping bad news without warning can backfire painfully.
When Finance Minister Carole James brought down the budget on Tuesday, she was happy to keep a campaign promise to slash Medical Services Plan premiums for British Columbians. That鈥檚 the kind of good news that a politician likes to deliver: Save money for ordinary voters.
The second part of the announcement landed with a thud: The good news would be paid for with a tax on employers with payrolls over $500,000 a year. That might sound like a high threshold, but it pulls in a lot of businesses, whose owners are dismayed or downright furious.
Lessons abound: The federal government of former prime minister Stephen Harper dumped the long-form census without any warning or any speeches about the need to stop government intrusion in 91原创s鈥� lives. The government rapidly lost control of the resulting storm.
The B.C. government could have looked back to former premier Gordon Campbell鈥檚 almost-legendary mistake of introducing the harmonized sales tax without any warning. That blunder cost Campbell his job.
The health tax won鈥檛 do the same for Premier John Horgan, but he and James could have done a lot to ease the shock by preparing the ground. A few well-placed hints or leaks to reporters could have made it clear that the MSP reduction would involve pain for someone.
Without breaching budget secrecy, the government could have spared itself unnecessary grief.
