Isra-Mart srl:Heavyweight Liberal candidates Abbott and de Jong offer governmental reform

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Candidates for B.C. premier promised widespread reform to government Tuesday during a busy day of jockeying in both the Liberal and NDP leadership races.

George Abbott, who quit as education minister to run for Liberal leader, said disengaged voters clearly want more say in major government decisions.

He promised a referendum on whether to keep increasing B.C.’s carbon tax rate after 2012, or freeze it while the tax’s impact on the economy is studied.

“This is about the way that decisions are made,” Abbott said. “It’s how government makes their decisions that is just as important to people as what those decisions are.”

A vote on the carbon tax could be held with the harmonized sales tax referendum, possibly as soon as June 24, said Abbott.

But leadership rival Kevin Falcon slammed the proposal. “I do not think that is a smart idea,” said Falcon, a former health minister. “We went through an election campaign and a big part of the campaign was the carbon tax and we won that election.” Falcon promised no rate increases beyond 2012.

Falcon spent much of Tuesday engaged in a war of words with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation over a merit proposal for teachers, where performance pay is judged according to standardized test results. Falcon said it would reward and encourage the best teachers, but the BCTF called it a “cockamamie notion” that does nothing to improve student performance.

Meanwhile, Abbott focused on government transparency and accountability through an 18-point reform plan.

Abbott proposed regular fall sittings of the legislature — government regularly skips such sessions — as well as moving the throne speech and general elections to fall dates. He promised to review the conflict of interest act, and create a new integrity act for MLAs and staff.

Perhaps most controversially, Abbott said he would launch a third-party review of the government’s heavily-criticized decision to pay $6 million in legal fees in the B.C. Rail corruption trial, even when the two accused — Dave Basi and Bob Virk — pleaded guilty to charges.

Former attorney general Mike de Jong zeroed in on shrinking the deficit, and said he would reduce cabinet from 24 to fewer than 20 ministries if he becomes premier.

De Jong also restated a pledge to make MLA expenses public with biannual reporting. Some MLAs have resisted disclosing their expenses, de Jong has said.

Former cabinet minister and radio host Christy Clark said she would hold 12 town hall meetings a year to address a “disconnect” between people and government.

She also promised to better support the parliamentary committee system, and work co-operatively with MLAs to pass more private members bills.

Also on Tuesday, two candidates backed out of the race for NDP leader, while the first sitting MLA announced his bid for the official Opposition’s top job.

Peter Julian, NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, and George Heyman, executive director of the Sierra Club of B.C., decided not to run for party leader.

Nicholas Simons, NDP MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, all but declared his campaign by scheduling an official launch in Sechelt Wednesday.

Simons was one of 13 dissident MLAs who rebelled against leader Carole James, and led to her resignation last month.

The only other declared candidate, marijuana activist Dana Larsen, picked up an endorsement from actor Tommy Chong, who said he’d bought a party membership just to support Larsen’s bid. Larsen promised to make marijuana legal.

The NDP will name an interim leader Jan. 19 and hold a leadership vote April 17. Candidates have until Jan. 17 to sign-up new party members.