There's something wonderful about asphalt. And steel. And bridges.

There must be because it turns on B.C. voters. Not only that, but it's the ultimate West Coast monument — a real-life Meccano set crossing an odd bit of water named after you.

Then again, that's long been the political way out here – stick up a few girders, pave a bit of dusty roadway and you're sure to be rewarded with ballots galore.

The latest honour goes to Bill Bennett, premier of BC in the mid-eighties. Vilified by the time he left office. Now, rehabilitated enough for Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell to trot out his latest election promise — the name of a bridge that isn't even on the books yet. But, why not — because any hint of money, sniff of spending is good for political business and sure to bring in the votes.

You see, the campaign for the hearts, minds, wallets and votes of British Columbians is officially underway — voters go to the polls on May 17th. That's the official campaign, with the election writ filed on Tuesday. But, with the date no secret thanks to Canada's only fixed-date election, the B.C. Liberals took to the hustings more than a month ago — handing out election goodies as fast as Premier Gordon Campbell could shovel them out to potential electors.

Then again that's the way politics has been done in B.C. — at least in recent memory, but thanks to that fixed term Campbell and his MLAs had the good fortune of being able to run the first month of the unofficial campaign with all the perks of office.

Now, W.A.C. Bennett, Bill Bennett's Social Credit father-premier who ran the province in the 1950s and 1960s — perfected the handout: gouge the taxpayer in the first two years of his term, buy their votes with the money saved in the third year, go to the polls, get re-elected and do it all over again. It kept Wacky in power for 20 years.

Bill used the same process to stay in power from 1975 to the early 1980s. In one election the goodies he handed out were lauded in Bennett-the-younger's "Sunshine Budget." And in true asphalt-promise tradition, one of his last goodies was a bridge – named after Alex Fraser, loyal stalwart and his Highways Minister.

But Bennett went further. In 1979 he gave British Columbians a direct handout: five shares of the B.C. Resources Investment Corporation. That was the company given a host of Crown-owned companies, bought by a vilified former NDP government, and now "given" to the people.

I still have my five free shares although they're worth nothing near the par value of $5.00 each. At least I wasn't convinced, as were many of my colleagues at the local Vancouver TV station where I worked, to spend thousands more on additional shares — in effect buying even more of something I already owned. And in typical Vancouver stock market fashion BCRIC shares soon sank like their acronym. After languishing in penny-stock land for ages the company was picked up for a song by tycoon Jimmy Pattison.

After Bennett, Premiers Bill Vander Zalm, Rita Johnston and even the NDP's Glen Clark used the same trick. Only NDPer Dave Barrett — mired in a deep recession — was denied the spend—big, feel—good bribery of the electorate.

Back to that fixed—term election: all those former premiers would envy Gordon Campbell. While they offered voters goodies, perhaps let the Legislature debate the largesse for a few days and then went to the polls, not Gordo. He brought in his good news budget, got the TV and newspaper coverage and then adjourned the House. Then the MLAs went home to voter-subsidized offices to campaign for a month while still officially on the job.

Campbell and his ministers toured B.C. giving government grants and making big money donations to local causes. Government websites proclaimed the latest handout. The blizzard of announcements was thicker than the springtime cherry blossoms falling along Vancouver's boulevards, according to one estimate they were running at three per day. Reporters email in-boxes were choked with the big-dollar pork barrel – out-spamming the offers for easy mortgages and cheap prescription drugs.

A ribbon-cutting in Kamloops. Ka-ching. Two-hundred million to widen a highway to Prince George. Ka-ching. Twenty million for a gym and track in Prince George. Ka-ching. Another $12.5 million for an "Olympic-class" winter sports facility in Fort St. John – so far from the real Olympic sites in Vancouver that no foreign athlete likely knows where it is.

The cash register was ringing — the total running up like the odometer on a Blacktop cab doing airport service. And all this from a government that only a few months earlier was pleading poverty — cutting social services, axing the civil service, eliminating shelters for abused women who'd been battered, telling aging spouses that they could no longer live together in nursing homes. It was all to promote efficiency, or so Campbell claimed.

But, in the wink of an eye and with a nod of his head the Grim Reaper of Victoria was transformed into Santa Campbell, who forgot all that austerity and began doling out the cash.

And with the campaign now officially underway and his hand no longer able to scoop goodies out of the public purse, the Liberals have had to resort to that other political standby — promises of future goodies and spending. Like yesterday's carrot: re-elect us and we'll give let the disabled earn more money before we cut off their cheques.

Back in the late 1970's, while covering a Bennett-era election, I asked a B.C. voter at a campaign whistle-stop in the Interior how she could be bribed by the pre-election goodies. Her reply: "It's like beating your head against a wall. It feels so good when you stop."

For a few short weeks Gordon Campbell is allowing British Columbians to stop the pain and feel good.

Anton Koschany is Senior Producer of CTV W—FIVE. He also runs the network's Election Results team. Raised in Vancouver he began his journalism career there. He has covered nine B.C. premiers and has buried one.