One of the more irritating aspects of our parliamentary system is that the role of the official Opposition is often ill defined. It's not just about opposing everything the government does.

But too often Opposition parties do just that - oppose everything - and if they take a holier-than-thou stance on everything, it can come back to bite them should they ever move into government.

We are seeing that maxim play out continually with the B.C. Liberal government.

The issues on which they can be accused of hypocrisy - saying and demanding one thing while in Opposition, and doing the precise opposite in government - are piling up.

The latest reminder is the decision to expand government gaming operations - yet again - to include online casino gambling.

The move makes sense, although it will be condemned by the puritans out there, who regard any kind of gambling as some sort of social evil that should be eradicated, not expanded.

Gambling will occur whether the government is involved in it or not, so the more the government can control gambling, the better. The gaming industry creates enormous revenues for "the house," and the billion dollars or so B.C. collects every year helps fund social services, education and health care.

But this argument seemed to have been lost on B.C. Liberals when they were in Opposition. They engaged in bouts of self-righteous indignation whenever the NDP government of the day tried to expand gambling (for instance, the introduction of slot machines and the creation of more casinos).

With the zealotry of religious fanatics, Gordon Campbell and his caucus attacked the NDP as immoral monsters hell-bent on destroying our social fabric. Naturally, once they became government, the B.C. Liberals learned to love gambling and the money to be made off it.

Now they stand accused, yet again, of rank hypocrisy on this issue. But spare them no tears, because there are other examples of hypocrisy that are attached to a government because of the unrealistic moral high ground it carves out when it is in Opposition.

For example, the B.C. Liberals also went to town over what it viewed as a heinous amount of public debt being piled up by the NDP government. Our children -- and our children's children! -- would inevitably pay for this fiscal nonsense, was the constant refrain from the Liberals.

Government services would naturally be squeezed by the mounting debt. Or so the argument went.

So what has happened to the debt while the B.C. Liberals have been in power? Has it gone down, or at least flat-lined?

Well, no. The total government debt was $34 billion when the B.C. Liberals took power and it is forecast to hit almost $53 million next year.

So much for the hysterical arguments heard in Opposition.

The NDP's general fiscal competence was derided by a sneering Liberal Opposition, yet the B.C. Liberals have shown equal ability in piling up huge budget deficits or tabling false budgets (the pre-election budget was a real whopper, as the latest public accounts reveal in great detail).

The list goes on: vicious attacks on the NDP over the issue of child protection, contrasted to fighting with the independent children's representative over service cuts and lack accountability on that very issue.

Then there's granddaddy of them all: an oft-repeated promise not to sell B.C. Rail, and then doing just that in a questionable transaction (to say the least, given there is a criminal trial mixed up with it).

Piling up the hypocrisy begins to lend a stench to a government. Throw in the perceived deceitfulness associated with the HST, and the air is getting fairly ripe around the B.C. Liberals right now.

Will New Democrats learn a lesson from this? With electoral victory in 2013 seeming more likely by the day, the NDP would be wise to resist the temptation of cloaking themselves with moral piety, of pretending everything in government is so simple, and that everything the B.C. Liberals do these days is horrible.

NDP leader Carole James has smartly backed away from automatically scrapping the HST. And the NDP hasn't exactly said it will forgo any of the gambling expansion either.

The NDP will need to provide some coherent, credible alternative policies to the Liberals. But if they overplay their hand, and make unrealistic statements like the B.C. Liberals did before they formed government, New Democrats may find themselves a one-term administration only.

Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.

KBaldrey@globaltv.com