The pine beetle didn't sneak up on us. It was imported during the war from boxes used to ship stuff back. What they did was stall the cut and destroy the forest industry which allowed the trees to rot. The USA had a lot to do with that too. Mining was hit hard and a lot of the money just walked away. Not to say it was a complete halt. Farming was hard hit as the infastructure came under attack and trucking costs and other supports dwindled. Even fishing came under attack. Illegal salmon were at an all time high. The underground economy came alive as people were forced into it due to losses of income and purchase power. Tax dollars were squandered and stolen and the gov't continued the gross mismanagement of the coffers. While this was going on unions were strong arming companies who were stuck here and smaller non-union shops couldn't get work. Remember the legislation changes that gave control to unions?

But, this is all history. The NDP according to a number of posters here is all pro business. You can see that in the constitution statement that the party is formed on. This includes their huge support for the pipe line: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/04/30/bc-ndp-enbridge-pipeline.html

You can also see how business is a huge supporter of the NDP: http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/07/03/NDP-Business/ and more support here:

Mr. Dix, who was chief of staff in the late 1990s to former premier Glen Clark, was fired after forging a memo to cover for his boss amid a casino kickback scandal. Although he was fired, he still received a $70,000 severance package. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/business-group-intensifies-attacks-on-bc-ndp-leader/article534744/

And just to be clear where they stand:

The difficulty with an NDP government is that what you see is not what you get. The party, by virtue of its constitution, has a 19-century anti-business bias and is governed by too many non-elected factions.

Now don't blame me for reporting the news. This is the face of the NDP and it is their track record. If you still think they are pro business and wo't twist a company's arm for bribe money think again.

Just for a lark, show us some headlines demonstrating the successes of the NDP from any term they had in office! Soon you will realize that it's not the party so much as it's the people in it. Sask did very well under the NDP.

Looking at those invasive party practices it is easy to see why the NDP has consistently performed so poorly when in government. During the 10 years of the last NDP government - 1991 to 2001 - unemployment in B.C. increased to double digits and as a province we suffered multiple credit-rating downgrades. Thanks to the NDP government and its interventionist policies, B.C. became a poor place to do business. Investors were leaving the province in droves. In 1999, Finning Tractor - a B.C. company since its inception in 1933 - moved it head offices to Edmonton. With the North American economy on a rip, B.C. trailed every Canadian jurisdiction in investment activity.

Although there is no doubt the current government is in trouble, so is the province if the NDP are elected as government. On three occasions, 1972, 1991 and 1996 the New Democrats formed government and in every case those terms ended in disaster.