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He went on to criticize the government’s record on public safety, saying Lower Mainland violence is escalating and that public safety “should be paramount for this government.”

In fact, the number of violent incidents reported by police dropped by as much as 40 per cent in the Lower Mainland between 2005 and 2014 and violent crime numbers nationwide were lower in 2014 than they were in 1970. The February 2016 budget estimated spending on public safety and the Solicitor General would increase by about four per cent to $708 million in 2017/18.

Horgan then lashed out at the government for failing to spend enough on mental health issues.

“When you don’t have sufficient counsellors because of underfunding of the system, going from second best to second worst, you don’t have capacity in the schools to deal with the issues that we have historically been able to look at with counselling services,” he said. “And the challenges are getting greater.”

Horgan’s ill-chosen comments were made in the absence of any information about the accused. He fell on NDP key messages about education underfunding even though the person charged was a homeless drifter, and not a student at Abbotsford Secondary, nor any other B.C. school. Police described the attack as a random act of violence of the sort society has, so far, been at a loss to prevent.

The NDP leader’s appalling lack of occasion, choosing at a time of grief and mourning to use his platform for crass partisan politics displayed an atrocious lack of judgment.

We expect better of politicians, especially those who aspire to be premier, than this shameful behaviour.