Incumbents running for reelection always like to "run on their record," proud of their accomplishments and what they've delivered to their constituents.
Once they roll off that list, the logic goes, everyone will be thankful and reward them with another term in office.
The trick, of course, is making sure the voters remember.
The B.C. Liberals must think their Prince George constituents are dumb as a sack of hammers and have the memory of a gnat based on the increasingly embarrassing string of funding announcements this spring, just before the election period officially gets underway on April 11.
Here are the local announcements made so far in March that featured either Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond or Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris (with cost in brackets):
March 3 - Rural Dividend Fund grant to five Prince George and area projects ($475,000).
March 10 - Prince George named host of 2022 B.C. Summer Games ($2 million annually to B.C. Games Society)
March 11 - Fraser-Fort George Regional District for Mackenzie landfill transfer station ($1.5 million, federal-provincial small communities grant
March 17 - School District 57 trades training equipment ($169,000)
March 17 - Highway 16 and Highway 97 improvements ($450,000 for Highway 97, Highway 16 cost not released)
March 17 - Trades and career development at Northern FanCon ($20,000)
March 17 - Kelly Road school replacement ($44.3 million)
March 22 - Highway 16 Transportation Action Plan ($2 million)
March 23 - One-time funding to pay for extra students to the emergency medical responder and industrial medic training programs at CNC ($111,000)
March 23 - 20 new campsites at Six Mile Bay Rec Site near Mackenzie (1,900 new campsites across B.C. over next five years announced in December, $22.9 million)
March 23 - School District 57 school upgrades and classroom supplies ($1.6 million)
March 24 - Sod turning on construction of $15-million heavy mechanical trades training facility at CNC (announced in December, $6.9 million each from the provincial and federal governments, rest from CNC)
March 24 - Four-laning of Highway 16 from Bunce Road to Blackwater Road ($15.6 million)
March 24 - P.G. Airport improvement ($1.9 million)
March 24 - Bike trail along Highway 16 ($500,000)
March 27 - Buy Local campaign
March 27 - Phase 3 of the Cariboo Connector ($200 million)
On Monday, there was $31,000 for a Buy Local campaign with Pacific Western Brewery. That's a nice return on investment for the $13,400 PWB donated to the B.C. Liberals in 2016.
This morning, Bond is in Valemount for a 10 a.m. announcement about the Valemount Glacier Destination Resort.
There is another announcement planned for Friday at CNC.
That list shows how the local MLAs have been run off their feet the whole month attending local media events to announce government spending. Bond and Morris also found time on March 17, after the Kelly Road school announcement, to open their campaign office.
Now contrast this month with last March.
Here are the announcements made last year at this time:
March 11 - Spruce beetle outbreak ($1 million)
March 15 - Ancient Forest set aside as provincial park
March 18 - Aboriginal skills training funding (three years, $2 million)
And in March 2015, there were none at all.
There is an old phrase in politics to the effect that it makes more sense to water the garden regularly, rather than giving it little or nothing and then drowning it just before an election.
In Prince George at least, the B.C. Liberals seem to have preferred the latter option during the past four years.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
