Regarding the deal itself, Washington Marine Group has an enviable track record for making money. My guess is that the deal is a good one for them. BC taxpayers on the other hand….

Fast, mostly passenger ferries are going to be a popular item in just a few years when fewer and fewer people will bring their cars to and from Vancouver Island. It’s a shame we saw our investment parleyed into a cynical political move.

Hell yes. In just this last election we had a budget surprise that was some 30% off pre-election talk, withholding welfare numbers until after the election, destruction of emails around the sale of BC Rail, and so on. The Pacificats were such a hot button topic when they came into power that selling them quickly and pitching it as a ‘no-nonsense cutting of losses’ move played very well into the marketing, so I can see accepting a low offer to make the loss look bigger. In the end, they can just blame it on the previous government. Don’t think for a second they care about how tax money is saved or spent; it’s only about power.

Also, in all the hubbub at the time I thought it very interesting that the engine failures were played up – but, and I might have missed it – there was little play on the Mercedes connection.

And from a distance at least one of the boats has been over at VanShip for some period of time – and the odd spark of spool-guns visible from the Vancouver side.

Would the Liberals ‘really’ low-ball a bid to make the NDP look bad?