Article content

VICTORIA — When the New Democrats one-upped the B.C. Liberals by announcing they would phase out bridge tolls this week, the governing party responded with a predictable “how are you going to pay for that?”

Never mind that the Liberals, through 16 years in office, routinely tapped contingency funds and other discretionary sources to pay for their schemes, half-baked and otherwise.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vaughn Palmer: Smarting Liberals try to discredit NDP spending plans Back to video

The Liberals were stung by the New Democrats having upstaging news coverage for their own promise of $30 million worth of relief for commuters in the form of a $500 cap on annual tolling payments.

If the New Democrats were going to eliminate a $200-million-a-year source of revenue for the Port Mann and Golden Ears Bridges, they need to provide a full accounting immediately.

Turned out NDP Leader John Horgan and crew were happy to oblige. And the answer, when it came with the release of the party election platform on Thursday, was diabolically clever.