The letter by Peter Northcott (Defence Of Liberal Record Candidate ‘Chest Thumping’, The Daily News, Dec. 27) paints a dismal picture of the B.C. Liberals past decade in government. Whilst the method in which the HST was brought in was not their brightest moment, some of the claims from Mr. Northcott are made with selective memory.

The NDP had an interesting decade governing this province also. Here are some highlights.

Two credit rating downgrades and the worst fiscal record in Canada during the 1990s. Corky Evans, former NDP cabinet Minister said: “We made announcements about things we weren’t even going to do”.

In 1998, 35 rural physicians left their communities due to NDP policies. During the 10-year NDP government, B.C. became the province with the highest personal income tax rates in Canada. Unemployment was running at 15 per cent in B.C. during the last NDP tenure. What are we now? Around eight per cent?.

The hundreds of millions wasted on the fast-ferry debacle are hard to beat unless you look at Bingogate and Casinogate.

Those last unfortunate episodes happened on the watch of Premier Glen Clark. His first assistant at the time was none other than Adrian Dix, who I believe backdated a memo regarding the events and effectively brought down the government.

So, when we look at the present government and compare to the NDP, suddenly it doesn’t look so bad anymore.

One last thing, has anyone asked Clark whether he’ll be voting NDP this time around?

K. WELLS

Kamloops