Come this Spring, British Columbians will be heading to the voting booth once again to determine who will lead their province.

If the public opinion polls are any yardstick, B.C. is once again showing why it is one big ungovernable mass.

In a province that is seeing unprecedented prosperity and leading Canada in economy growth, political uncertainty is back to haunt the ruling Liberals.

Recent numbers show that 43 percent of decided voters would back the New Democrats, compared with 40 percent for the Liberals.

Pollsters say the compromises to B.C.'s health care and education system in exchange for fiscal prudence and a balanced budget has been too much for some voters.

Translated that means many people think the surplus created by the Liberals can now allow the NDP to return to power and practice its traditional tax-and-spend policies.

This myopic view is apparently shared by some 43 percent of British Columbians--simply unbelievable.

British Columbia today has a government that has made the economy more competitive, cut your taxes, reduced red tape and helped win the right to host the Olympics in 2010 to generate $16-billion worth of capital spending projects over the next five years.

After inheriting a $3.8-billion NDP deficit when it took office in 2001, The Liberal government now boasts a hefty surplus.

There has been a steady influx of people to British Columbia over the past few years compared with the exodus during the NDP reign.

Sure some of the medicine required to gain this fiscal health was bitter.

But it was promised and it was delivered.

On the other hand what does the NDP have to show for after a decade of rule

NDP principal secretary Gerry Scott said his party has been forced to rebuild itself from the ground up following the 2001 election defeat.

The NDP won't deny its past, but it's the future that will be the focus, he said.

So what is the future

Nobody seems to know.

Other than Liberal bashing, the NDP has no direction and is focused on highlighting its new inexperienced leader Carole James.

Carole who you ask

Yes that Carole James.

The same one who resonates with the public by inferring that B.C.'s top women don't want anything to do with her party and the same one who called for a boycott of B.C. farmed salmon--a multi-million dollar industry that employs some 4,000 people in the coastal communities.

The NDP's makeover starting with Carole James and retreads like Harry Lali and Corky Evans is far from inspiring.

The party believes that this makeover will provide a fresh facade for voters and hide all the scars of yesteryears.

It is not working because like the NDP of old, the party is only riding a crest of negativism against the Liberals and has not released a platform that tells voters where it stands on issues

But you can bet your bottom dollar that the NDP's platform, should it get around to doing it, will be one that returns British Columbia to high taxes, pro-union legislation and government intervention in the economy.

There are already indications of that.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives--an NDP-funded think-tank--recently released an alternative provincial budget.

This alternative budget suggests the NDP will delay balancing the budget for another five to six years, return to deficits and the old tax-and-spend policies that killed B.C.'s economy through the 1990s.

It also calls for a rollback of Liberal tax cuts while promoting up to a 30 percent tax hike.

The Liberals have made British Columbia the envy of Canada.

The NDP has done no such thing.

It is baffling why so many are heading to the polls with their eyes wide shut.

The Asian Pacific Post