Before Premier Campbell can spit out two words to open the second sitting of the legislative session on October 7th, political opponents of BC Liberals plan a protest march and a recall campaign against each and every elected Liberal MLA.

BC election laws allow for a voter-initiated petition to drive a MLA out of office after 18 months of service provided 40 per cent of registered voters in a riding sign the petition within a 60-day window. Eighteen months since the last election expires this Fall, meaning it's open season on all MLAs.

It's unlikely any union-based or NDP-backed recall drives will amount to much success particularly in ridings where the Green Party gained solid ground in the last general election. The last thing the NDP need is for the Greens to snatch a few seats in a by-election or for vote splitting to send recall-targeted Liberals back to office.

But that hasn't stopped the formation of local web sites dedicated to turfing the Campbell government. Take for example www.recallthemall.ca ("Recall them All," not to be confused for "Recall the Mall") whose overstated goal is to end "Liberal carnage." More fitting for a war crimes tribunal case, the alleged Liberal carnage has also inspired www.recallbcliberals.com to "stop the destruction of social health, education, etc...;" you know the drill.

Then there's the on-line recall petition: www.petitiononline.com/2005 that considers the BC Liberal's election victory a "fraud." Huh Are they talking about vote rigging or ballot stuffing No. Presumably, by fraud, they mean a disagreeable election result.

You can actually read the names and comments of the petition signatories. The visceral attacks on Campbell, not to be mentioned in mixed company, would make any candidate reconsider a life in politics. "Mean-spirited" and "disgraceful" are about as gentle as they get.

My favorite was by Marc Tattoo: "Vancouver is the most boring city in North America - Thanks a lot !!!" It must be a lonely place in the Premier's office.

The on-line petition serves up a list of complaints against the Liberals for essentially doing what they committed to do. Cutting public service costs and income taxes were part of the platform that got them elected. If that's their crime, then let them stand accused.

But the one myth that keeps circulating in the petition and elsewhere is the alleged cuts to health care. Someone explain to me slowly so that I can grasp it, how is a $1 billion funding hike to health care this year actually a cut in health care spending When water runs uphill I'll likely catch on.

If criticisms are to be aired in a recall petition let them be of substance and not fiction. A retreat on tax relief coupled with a projected $4 billion deficit and a cumulative $40 billion debt would rattle the core of any individual who gave a toss about BC's economic health.

The recall campaigns are just a substitute or another attempted delay to the jagged pill of government spending restraint. Wrapped tightly behind a veil of empathy for sacrosanct social programs and crown corps is the blatant message of more debt and higher taxation.

If anyone is "mean-spirited" and "disgraceful," it's those who wouldn't hesitate to transfer to their descendents billions of dollars of debt and years of pointless labour and high taxes to pay it off. The same people are likely unfit to balance their own chequebook, but at least they have the right to recall.