VICTORIA: The BC division of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today held a news conference in front of the Legislature buildings to unveil an Accountability Guarantee. The Guarantee is based on campaign promises made by Liberal leader Gordon Campbell. The CTF is challenging the Liberal leader to sign a guarantee to keep his promises on tax relief, as well as democratic and electoral reform.

"We're not asking Gordon Campbell to sign a CTF pledge or anyone else's pledge," said CTF-BC director Mark Milke. "We're asking him to sign a guarantee based on his own promises of tax cuts, electoral reform, and making recall and initiative legislation more workable."

"We're pleased to see tax relief and these other issues in the campaign, but as Mr. Campbell well knows, political talk is cheap in B.C. We're asking him to guarantee accountability by promising to resign if the promises are broken," said Milke.

"After the campaign is over - and assuming the polls are correct - we intend to use the guarantee to remind the new Premier to meet his commitments or resign. In other words, not only say what you mean but mean what you say," added Milke.

Milke explained that the CTF usually asks for such a guarantee from all political parties, as it did in Saskatchewan in 1999 where the Saskatchewan party and the Liberal party signed such guarantees. In this election, given the polls and the unreliability of the governing party on promises, the CTF decided to challenge only the front-runner.

"People are tired of being promised one thing during an election only to be told after they have voted that the 'situation has changed' and the government is unwilling or unable or unable to live up to its promises," explained Milke. "This time, we plan to get as strong a guarantee as possible to hold our politicians accountable over the next term of government."