The Harcourt gov't coasted on the tail of the previous gov't, which was very free enterprise, (but it's undoing was social conservatism). Harcourt's NDP was convicted of stealing from charities (was the first and only gov't in Canada to steal from a church), and the corruption was so bad, he resigned. The following NDP gov't had no fiscal legacy to build on, and were nearly decimated by BC citizens in the 2001 election, at the end of the Lost Decade.