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MLAs lay out their visions for 2012

"We have a plan," was John Yap's message to members of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce Friday morning.

"We have a plan," was John Yap's message to members of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce Friday morning.

While many within the business community fret over global financial crises and local economic uncertainty, the MLA assured his audience that the provincial Liberal government has things well in hand.

Yap, along with MLAs Linda Reid and Rob Howard, reviewed their successes and laid out their visions for 2012 and beyond.

The exercise was done, in part, to answer the single question asked by an audience member: "What's going wrong?"

While Wayne Duzita applauded the government for many of its pro-business initiatives, such as lowering corporate and personal income taxes, he pointed to a recent poll that showed the NDP could form a majority government after the next provincial election.

Howard argued that the NDP should not be given too much credit for its strong standing.

"Despite all the self-inflicted damage of the past years, they (the NDP) haven't moved their needle.

Our challenge comes from the right flank," Howard said, referring to John Cummins' B.C. Conservative Party.

But even if the game changer is the Conservative party, the win will go to the NDP, Yap noted.

"If the coalition of people who are pro-business and pro-free enterprise is fractured, the NDP will form the government. I'm just going to put that out there," he said.

(For the full story and photo gallery, visit www.richmond-news.com.)

eedmonds@richmond-news.com