BC's election has had a hard time competing with the daily dose of scandal coming out of Ottawa. But then again, it's not like the party leaders have been offering much to engage voters. Elections are intended to be a contest of ideas, policies and occasionally even visions. Sometimes, as in the provincial election in 2001, the contest exists only in theory because one party has such a big lead the election outcome is a forgone conclusion. Unfortunately, contests can also be trumped when the main parties assume such similar positions they actually mirror each other, as in 2005.

The fact is, the province's major parties, the Liberals and the NDP, have more in common than they do different. The traditional polarization between the province's political parties has ended, or at the very least, temporarily abated.

The only difference between the NDP and Liberals is quantity. Both parties are unabashedly committed to spend, spend, and spend. A trend that has never done the province's taxpayers any favours. Just look to the $6 million a day we fork over in interest payments on our $36 billion debt.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, (CTF) compiled a comprehensive list of promises made by each party in their election platforms. The similarities are staggering. To list but a few, the NDP and Liberals both plan to: address tuition rates, increase transitional housing, target money for wait lists, regional and industry economic development (read: slush funds and corporate hand-outs), expand apprenticeship training, increase the budgets for post-secondary institutions, improve libraries, build or improve transportation arteries throughout the province, increase funding for parks and of course both promise more long term beds.

It is also uncanny, the number of election commitments made by the parties that do not include a price tag. In the Liberal platform, there are 87 promises with no budget or dollar figure. The NDP meanwhile list 31 un-ticketed items which include costly promises like bringing BC Ferries back under the thumb of politicians as a crown corporation.

What is all the more frustrating is that both the NDP and Liberals knew exactly when the election was going to happen and both have been preparing for it for the past four years. There's no excuse for either platform not to be completed costed.

The NDP claim they could only cost out their first fiscal year because they had to rely on unaudited government numbers. Hogwash. If the NDP were serious about providing voters with a plan for the next four years, they could have supplemented government numbers with private sector economic growth projections, interest rate forecasts and changes to the Canadian dollar. Instead the NDP choose to promise a lot without costing much.

It is even more insulting, then, for the Liberal platform to have also included election promises with no dollar figures or cost estimates. This is a party that has been running the province for the past four years, that just delivered a $32 billion budget in February and yet failed to provide voters with a costed set of promises.

The bottom line is that whichever party forms government on May 17th-the spend or spend more party-expect the debt and taxes to head upwards. If the mirrored promises of this campaign are any indication, the next four years will not be friendly for taxpayers.