The first session of the new provincial legislature opened with a speech that finds B.C. at the "most consequential moment" since the Second World War in the face of American tariff and annexation threats, drawing historic parallels in the fight against fascism 80 years ago. 

"In the face of an unprecedented and unjustified threat to our economy, British Columbians are joining with all Canadians to fight back," Lt.-Gov. Wendy Cocchia said during her throne speech Tuesday (Feb. 18). "We will never be the 51st state. Not now or ever."

The early section of the speech invokes none other than British war-time leader Winston Churchill during the early days of the Second World War, when German forces had conquered much of continental Europe and were threatening the United Kingdom with invasion. 

"When Britain stood alone in Europe against the Nazis, Churchill made a desperate appeal for more military equipment," she said. "British Columbia answered the call."

That section of the speech noted B.C.'s role in helping to build the ships and planes with which the Allies defeated the Axis powers and returned to the war theme in its conclusion when it noted the historic ties between the United States and Canada. 

"Ours is a bond forged in battle," she said. "We stormed the beaches at Normandy together on D-Day, fighting to liberate Europe from fascism. For generations, our soldiers have died, cried and celebrated victory beside each other."

But this history along with other cases of cooperation between Canadians and Americans served to set up the speech's second declaration that Canada would never join the United States. 

"We are a proud and independent country," she said. 

The policy sections of the speech largely confirm legislation to fulfill promises made during and after the provincial campaign, minus the promised rebate of $1,000 for 90 per cent of provincial households. That promise was withdrawn last week, citing the tariff threats. 

Government promises to table legislation to help the provincial film industry, speed up permitting in the resource and electricity sector and generally cut red tape. While familiar, government has framed these promises as part of its three-pronged response to the pending tariffs, the others being steps to diversify trade within Canada and abroad and respond to the tariff themselves. 

"As a country, Canada must be ready to fight back, if necessary," she said. "B.C. will respond to any economic attack on our families, firmly and forcefully, as part of a united Team Canada effort."

The most significant new promise concerns legislation to protect British Columbians from credit-card fraud, unfair practices by cellphone companies and to recover health-care costs from what the speech calls "wrongdoers."

It also re-states promises to hire more police officers and health-care workers, with a pledge to attract "the best and brightest medical professionals" from the United States "who are already drawn to the benefits of our public health-care system."

This patriotic tone around the public health-care system also appears in other parts of the speech.

"There is no greater expression of who we are as Canadians than our universal public health-care system," Cocchia said. 

Cocchia concluded her speech by quoting the "true north, strong and free" line from the Canadian national anthem , following the earlier rendition of the same anthem by the assembled MLAs following the confirmation of Raj Chouhan as speaker. 

Heavy on patriotism and economic themes, the speech claims progress on housing and healthcare, while acknowledging more needs to be done. Other files, meanwhile, appear to receive cursory attention, including the environment.

"We protect our land, air and water," Cocchia said. "(We) take action to tackle climate change, while we grow our economy." 

That line was the only reference to climate change.