BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon takes aim at premier in first official day in Legislature
Posted May 16, 2022 7:25 pm.
Last Updated May 16, 2022 7:28 pm.
It didn’t take long for sparring to start at the B.C. legislature, as recently-elected BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon took his seat in the house for the first time.
Falcon was officially sworn in Monday. Previously, Falcon was an MLA from 2001 to 2013 under premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark before taking some time off.
But now that he’s back, he didn’t wait long to call Premier John Horgan “out of touch,” taking aim at the multi-million dollar Royal BC Museum rebuild announced last week.
The leader of the opposition repeatedly called the renovation a “vanity” project in the premier’s backyard, saying if elected next year, he’d cancel it.
“Why on earth is the premier so tone deaf to be spending over $1 billion on a museum project instead of helping British Columbians get access to a family doctor and some relief when they’re trying to fill up their cars?” he asked in the legislature, referring to record high gas prices on the Lower Mainland and across the province in recent weeks.
Horgan has come under fire recently for what his province is doing — or isn’t doing — to address the high cost of filling up, as inflation also increases.
The premier has also been criticized for some choice language he used when speaking to British Columbians amid record gas prices, telling them to ask themselves whether they need to drive or not. Falcon joined those slamming Horgan for his words.
“When the premier says, and I quote, ‘Think before you hop in the car,’ that was the premier’s response to clamouring British Columbians concerned about not being able to fill up their car,” Falcon said.
Bridge vs. tunnel: Falcon vows to cancel NDP’s Massey replacement project
Revamping the Royal BC Museum in Victoria isn’t the only thing on the list of projects Falcon is promising to put an end to.
The Liberal leader also went at the NDP to cancel the bridge his party wanted to replace the Massey Tunnel with.
“It kills me when I have to say that I’m going to stop their stupid idea of building another tunnel … It makes absolutely no sense,” Falcon said of the contentious project.
“It’s hard for me to stop stupid when they’re doing it all over the place, but I have to tell you it is a terrible mistake to allow them to even think that they could build an eight-lane tunnel to replace the existing tunnel — they’ll never get it done,” he added.
"It's hard for me to stop stupid" @KevinFalcon says of the @bcndp plan to put an 8 lane tunnel in place of the Massey instead of the 10 lane bridge the @bcliberals want – and he says will – see there &.
And says they don't know how to execute large projects.#bcpoli @CityNewsVAN— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) May 16, 2022
But Horgan didn’t let Falcon’s quips go unanswered. The premier took time to remind Falcon about the Liberals’ record when he was last in the house.
“We have profound challenges ahead of us. I know you’re going to be helping us each step of the way by bringing forward constructive suggestions about improving government,” Horgan said.
