All posts by Rafe Mair

About Rafe Mair

Rafe Mair, LL.B, LL.D (Hon) a B.C. MLA 1975 to 1981, was Minister of Environment from late 1978 through 1979. In 1981 he left politics for Talk Radio becoming recognized as one of B.C.'s pre-eminent journalists. An avid fly fisherman, he took a special interest in Atlantic salmon farms and private power projects as environmental calamities and became a powerful voice in opposition to them. Rafe is the co-founder of The Common Sense Canadian and writes a regular blog at rafeonline.com. View all posts by Rafe Mair →

$Joe Oliver says fracking is safe, so it must be$

Joe Oliver says fracking is safe, so it must be

March 6, 2015Energy and Resources, Fracking, Oil&GasfeaturedRafe Mair

Joe Oliver says fracking is safe, so it must be — Finance Minister Joe Oliver (Adrian Wyld/CP)

I must apologize for being an alarmist. I now discover there is no reason for concern about hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking”. I have been alleging that this process of “mining” natural gas is dangerous not only to the atmosphere and the people around the process, but to the water used and the potential damage thereafter to the water table.

I now understand that there are no problems whatsoever with this process and that the scaredy-cats in places like New York and Quebec that have banned “fracking” – and the United Kingdom and the European Union that have limited it – are simply wrongheaded.

How do I arrive at my volte face?

I have examined the evidence carefully.

Harper govt gives seal of approval

First of all, we have our own fatuous Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, who insists that fracking is safe – chastising Nova Scotia for its recent ban – and then all you have to do is look up “safe fracking” on the Internet and you’ll see that he is right.

Further proof of my egregious error comes from the fact that the Prime Minister, in giving away bundles of cash to the LNG industry, mentions not a word about the “fracking” that would fuel it. And we know that if it were any concern at all for his beloved flock, he would say so and take steps to shelter them, just as he is doing with the threat from women who wear veils.

See no evil, hear no evil

The Fraser Institute, which is, they allege, a “think tank” says nothing on the subject. Neither does the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, which normally can’t keep their mouth shut about anything. If these two honest, independent sources of the absolute truth are silent on “fracking”, we can be certain that all is well.

Rumours of LNG’s demise greatly exaggerated

There have been three very comforting reports in the press lately. We can start with the head of the BC LNG Alliance, one David Keane, who tells us that LNG is alive and well in BC and in a speech to Calgary energy barons (obviously a tough audience) makes no mention whatsoever of “fracking” – and you could be sure that he would have if it were a problem.

In the Toronto Globe & Mail, we are informed that the consortium led by Petronas assures us that LNG is alive and well in British Columbia and that it will proceed. This is enthusiastically seconded by Rich Coleman, the premier’s pet poodle on the project, although neither of them say just when this will happen. The encouraging news, though, is that not a word is mentioned about the massive increase in “fracking” required to power the industry – so we can assume from these unimpeachable sources that there is no problem there.

Exxon CEO bullish on fracking’s future

In the Vancouver Sun of March 5, there is an article containing an interview with Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil. In this interview, Mr. Tillerson is extravagant in his praise of shale mining and paints a very rosy future for this source of oil and gas. Again, encouraging to all, is that Mr. Tillerson doesn’t make any mention whatsoever about “fracking” so we know from the authority of ExxonMobil, that there’s no problem. (This is the same guy who infamously protested fracking-related infrastructure planned, literally, for his own back yard)

Fracking absent from BC LNG discussion

In our own province, the said Mr. Coleman makes no mention of “fracking” in any of his many statements, so knowing how trustworthy he is, we can assume that “fracking” is no problem in British Columbia.

Neither does Mr. John Horgan, Leader of the Opposition, and we surely know that if there were a problem with “fracking”, this talented opposer of wrong, would turn the full fury of his well-known temper on the government and the industry.

This evidence of the safety of “fracking” is fortified by the fact that our premier, known for her strict adherence to the facts, her candour and honesty, also doesn’t mention “fracking” – in fact calling BC LNG “the cleanest fossil fuel on the planet” – so we can assume by that omission that her credibility is behind the safety of this harmless process.

Science, Schmience!

It’s embarrassing to have to admit that I have relied upon scientific presentations from all over the world and actions taken by other jurisdictions. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how they can all be just as wrong and stupid as I have been.

It can be taken, then, that hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for oil and natural gas is harmless to the people and to the environment.

It follows from this that suggestions I have made about the release of methane gas by this process are nonsense. So are suggestions that it pollutes water. It can also be assumed that statements from scientists to the effect that, taking everything into consideration, fracked natural gas is as harmful to the atmosphere and contributes as much to global warming as does oil or coal, are unprofessional rubbish.

Rest assured

The lesson I take from this is that we are fortunate indeed in this province and this country to have men and women of such integrity and honesty looking after our industries and our governments. It would be sad, indeed, to ever think that captains of industry or leaders of government would shade the truth, much last tell lies, in order to feather their own nests or advance their own political prospects.

We are, in truth, lucky people and we should think about that once in a while.

I must say that the Captains of Industry and our political masters and mistresses hope we don’t think about it too much or too often.

$Rafe- Federal leaders out of touch on LNG, fracking$

Rafe: Federal leaders out of touch on LNG, fracking

February 23, 2015Energy and Resources, Fracking, LNGfeaturedRafe Mair

Rafe- Federal leaders out of touch on LNG, fracking — Thomas Mulcair, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has thrown down the gauntlet with his promise of federal tax giveaways for LNG enterprises.

I expected this sort of nonsense – just one look at the smug sneer of power on the face of James Moore, Minister of Industry, over the last few months, indicated that this decision was coming and that the opinions of the people of British Columbia didn’t matter a tinker’s dam.

This I think is one of the central points.

When it comes to industry and the people with whom this government are philosophically aligned, the people lose every time.

It may well be, when one thinks about it, that Mr. Harper takes few if any risks with this policy.

Trudeau and Mulcair fuzzy on LNG

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau is extremely “wet” on this issue. He wants more science involved on the fracking issue and then cautions premier Christy Clark that she shouldn’t put all her eggs in the LNG basket.

Tom Mulcair, the leader of the NDP, has also been pretty fuzzy. He talks about better environmental assessment – and who could argue with that – but he’s obviously leery of opposing the provincial NDP’s support of LNG.
That leaves the Greens, and while I believe that they will get some seats in British Columbia, they will not be forming the federal government.

The elephant in the room

There is an elephant in the room, which the Tories want nothing to do with, the Liberals want something but not too much to do with, while the NDP seems happy to feed the pachyderm as long as he behaves. This is, of course, is the “fracking” issue.

On this question, the science is pretty clear. Not only is hydraulic fracturing, “fracking”, highly toxic to the atmosphere and unhealthy generally for human beings, it creates increased earthquakes where it is practised and it can poison the water system. Interestingly enough Andrew Nikiforuk, a true energy expert, has just written an interesting article in the tyee.ca on the stability issue in the Netherlands, where dangerous earthquakes, both in frequency and intensity, are occurring in the Groningen area where intensive fracking takes place.

Again, it would seem that Mr. Mulcair is handicapped by the position taken by his provincial colleague, John Horgan. Mr. Trudeau talks about science but doesn’t want to deal with the clear science that is already here and pretty definitive on the matter – and, of course, Mr. Harper and his local marionette, James Moore, simply don’t give a good goddamn about the issue.

For British Columbia is this is a pretty sad scenario.

Economics are LNG’s Achilles’ Heel

It brings into focus the one tool we have at our disposal namely civil disobedience. Now it would seem that with Bill C 51, the anti-terrorism the bill, that the federal government will throw us all in jail as terrorists if we physically protest a project.

The saving grace is, of course, economic. Unless there is a miraculous return of prices, which would mean that somehow the glut of natural gas in the world disappears, LNG plants will be unfeasible.

It is sad, indeed, to contemplate that when it comes to the serious environmental and health concerns surrounding LNG, none of our elected representatives or those who wish to be elected – with the clear exception of the Green Party – care about us, the people.

Some day, some way, the people are going to have a say on this.

Christy Clark’s LNG-fueled Fudge-it Budget…and the enabling NDP

February 13, 2015Economics, Energy and Resources, LNGfeaturedRafe Mair

Christy Clark's LNG-fueled Fudge-it Budget — Premier Christy Clark made big election promises about managing BC’s economy (CP)

Welcome to Ruritania! Where is Peter Sellers when we need him?

We now have a legislature pretending to act like big kids do, leaders acting as if they really are in charge, a government out of control, and an opposition dedicated more to supporting the government than to raising issues.

Through the looking glass: Clark’s surreal throne speech

The Throne Speech was really quite funny when you think of it. The more LNG companies withdraw their undertaking, the more money we make. The fewer the LNG plants developed, the more jobs we’ll have. The worse our environmental record is in fracking for LNG, the less it matters.

If we go on having companies withdraw from LNG in BC, God knows how much money we’ll all make and how rich we’ll all become!

Thanks to Christy Clark, Alice in Wonderland has become not a fairy tale, but a documentary!

LNG looked bad from the beginning

BG Group recently pulled the plug on BC LNG — BG Group is one of many companies to abandon ship on BC LNG

In looking back at the history of LNG in BC, one is reminded of Casey Stengel, managing “them amazing Mets”, in 1962, when he asked “can’t anyone here play this game?”

From the outset, Common Sense Canadian publisher Damien Gillis and I have raised questions about the viability of an LNG economy, given the global situation. Our concerns arose because we did simple research, largely using government and industry publications. We also were much helped by our resident economist, Erik Andersen.

It was abundantly apparent that there would be a glut of natural gas on the world market, that the United States, long so dependent upon the Middle East, was going to be self-sufficient and competing with us on exports, and that the cost of getting our LNG to China was – surprise, surprise – much higher than shipping gas from China to China.

We weren’t rocket scientists, just ordinary people like you who had learned early on how to read.

It didn’t take a crystal ball…

Our predictions steadily came true and if anything more quickly than we thought. Each time one came true, Christy Clark, and her poodle, Rich Coleman, had even more money rolling in to British Columbia. As time went on, and more companies withdrew their support, Christy Clark’s view of things got even rosier.

This ridiculous situation continued until the present day and I shudder in excitement thinking of all the money we’ll make when the last LNG company abandons us.

The Opposition that refuses to oppose

This article today, is not really about Christy Clark. It’s about leadership in general.

There is no nice way to say it – John Horgan, the NDP leader, has done an appalling job. Given the Christy Clark/Coleman saga, any decent opposition would have a field day.

It’s indeed ancient times but in my day the leaders were Dave Barrett and Bill Bennett, as unalike as chalk and cheese, yet each, in his way, hugely effective. Barrett was the master of the instant put down. On the government side, you were constantly on the defensive and, as I quickly learned, woe betide anyone who heckled him.

Bennett, always better informed, though no orator, was a plodder with the ability to come up with a killing comeback instantly.

They heartily disliked each other and for those who know them well, it is so sad to see them both seriously ill. Two great guys, two great leaders.

The point is that both sides of the legislature and those that supported them outside knew they had a leader. That may not sound like much but it is hugely important, especially for the opposition. The government, without an opposition ready to take over, is able to coast. For an opposition to be effective it must be a government in waiting, with policies ready to implement. That requires leadership that is both ready to lead and appears to be.

The NDP response to the Throne Speech, where the premier assured us again of the riches to come from vanishing LNG producers, was that the government talked too much about LNG and should move on to other subjects. This particularly came from Mike Farnworth, who ought to know better and that the point was that Clark has nothing else to talk about except failure.

Clark has nothing

Think about it for a second. Apart from the phoney LNG business, Clark has no policy whatsoever. They have nothing whatever concrete to offer in terms of the economy and, of course, are bankrupt on such matters as the environment. There is, therefore, a huge political vacuum.

It’s not brain surgery to realize that this is the spot the NDP step in. The first thing they do is to kill what remains of the LNG enthusiasm falsely raised by the Liberals. It’s sheer idiocy for them to proceed into the next election, just over two years away, allowing the Liberals to sail on promising another Umpty-dump billion dollars for LNG projects.

LNG threatens environment

Before moving on, one must observe that the NDP also has a huge obligation to expose the environmental concerns surrounding LNG – I dare say the majority of people in British Columbia have those concerns and in some areas, Squamish particularly, it is a very real impending threat. Their doughty city Council has had no encouragement whatsoever from the Opposition to plans that would materially and adversely alter the lifestyle of that lovely town and the surrounding area.

In order for the NDP to complete its apparent suicide commitment, it should stop shilly-shallying and just support the Liberals’ LNG policy, being that these foreign companies may do as they please as they are used to doing; cheat on their taxes and utterly ignore environmental concerns as just an avoidable nuisance.

Both parties either underestimate the public’s feeling about the environment or don’t give a damn.

Public hungry for change

I’ve watched that feeling develop over a good many years. Much of what people generally feel now was espoused by the NDP 40 years ago – their problem being that then their opposition was more whining than practical. Moreover, it is always very difficult to be ahead of public opinion.

The public has dramatically changed. Even when I was in government it would be unthinkable to try to stop an interprovincial pipeline, let alone two of them. Alberta was looked upon as a pal to be envied.

But, in 25 years, the world has dramatically changed, as we all know. The question of fossil fuels has become first a very serious scientific one and then, logically, a political one. Global warming is for real and the vast majority of the public knows that – the exception being some politicians.

We’ve reached the position, then, where the public is far, far ahead of its political masters who would have us believe that the environmentalist is against all development and wants to crawl into a cave, chew on the leg of a sabre-toothed tiger and spend the rest of his life drawing pictures on walls.

I consider myself an environmentalist. So does Damien and a great many other people I know, who not that long ago wouldn’t have considered supporting the NDP and wouldn’t today if it weren’t for the Clark/Coleman Neanderthals.

Making a living and enjoying a living

The growing concern, which has enveloped all of us, is for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the surroundings in which we live. We’re convinced that making a living and enjoying a living are compatible ambitions. Of course it requires some sacrifice – anything of importance does.

What environmentalists have done, however, is to annoy the hell out of the establishment because we no longer believe a word it says. This isn’t cynicism – it’s bitter experience. One only has to look at the Woodfibre LNG’s Indonesian owner and their tax-cheating overseas, to say nothing of their wanton environmental destruction, to realize that when they tell us that they will be good corporate citizens, care for our environment and pay their taxes that they’re lying through their teeth.

The trust just isn’t there

This is a huge societal dichotomy, no doubt about that. There was a time when most of us looked at the captains of industry and political leaders and thought that deep down they really cared about the people and the environment in which we live.

Experience has taught us that this is a load of crap. We’ve learned about hugely expensive internal and external public relations exercises devoted simply to deceiving the public.

Naively, we expected our politicians to reflect our feelings but have learned that they reflect only the interests of the establishment. As it always has, money talks.

Out of all of this comes a sense of keen frustration.

I no longer have the faintest hope that the Liberals will do anything but reflect those who invest money in them.

Where does that leave us?

I had hoped that John Horgan would be able to offer the kind of leadership the public could listen to and perhaps follow. Unfortunately this has not proved to be the case.

I’ve expressed hopes for the Green Party, however I am realistic enough to know that they won’t be forming a government in the near future.

It’s obvious that choices are severely limited and that if the Throne Speech proves nothing else, it’s that the government is bankrupt, lacking a semblance of moral compass, and the opposition are useless.

If the Green Party has nothing else going for it, at least the alternatives are far worse.

Woodfibre LNG proponent has history of fraud, tax evasion

January 9, 2015Energy and Resources, LNG, Oil&GasfeaturedRafe Mair

Woodfibre LNG proponent has history of fraud, tax evasion — Sukanto Tanoto (right), the man behind the proposed Woodfibre LNG project

Permit me to make some observations about the LNG situation in Squamish. What the people of Howe Sound do is their affair. I can only give them the benefit, if any, of my experience over the years.

We are not dealing here with honest people – it is not hyperbolic to call them crooks. The powers behind Woodfibre LNG have been convicted of large tax evasion and substantial environmental degradation. Sukanto Tanoto, his family and associates have been consorts of the worst sort of financial manipulators in Indonesia – right up to the former President Suharto.

This from The Guardian:

[quote]

…one of the world’s largest palm oil companies, owned by Sukanto Tanoto, was fined US$205m after being shown to have evaded taxes by using shell companies in the [British Virgin Islands] and elsewhere. The company has agreed to pay the fines.

Documents arising from the case show that Tanoto’s company, Asian Agri, systematically produced fake invoices and fake hedging contracts to evade more than $100m of taxes.

According to evidence contained in more than 8,000 papers, the company, which employs 25,000 people in 14 subsidiaries and owns 165,000 hectares of plantations, was engaged in “routine and systematic fraudulent accounting and book-keeping practices” using British jurisdictions.

[/quote]

Premier Clark and her poodle, Rich Coleman, expect this outfit to pay the piddling taxes imposed by the government on LNG plants.

The fix is in

I am by no means the only person to notice that the permit request by Fortis BC to upgrade its pipelines in order to feed the proposed Woodfibre plant precedes permission to build the plant. That’s because the “fix is in”.

From childhood we’re taught to respect the law and the “policemen” who enforce it. It rubs against the grain to think of breaking even a minor law.

What happens, however, if the laws are stacked in favour of the powerful and against ordinary citizens? What if the laws are so unfair as to be travesties of justice?

The place we, the public, look for protection is environmental assessment laws. So let’s look at The National Energy Board, in the news much recently, and see how they look after us.

Hearings called a “farce”

Some of the most damning evidence of the National Energy Board’s Kinder Morgan hearings came from a former BC Hydro CEO and deputy minister of energy for both Manitoba and Ontario, Mark Eliesen. He says this about the proceedings of the National Energy Board in the Kinder Morgan hearings, from which he resigned as an official intervenor:

[quote]

In effect, this so-called public hearing process has become a farce, and this Board a truly industry captured regulator.

In addition to gutting the oral-cross examination feature of a public hearing process that supports proper questioning and an adequate level of due diligence, there are other Board decisions that have been made over the course of this hearing that reflect a pre-determined outcome.

The evidence on the record shows that decisions made by the Board at this hearing are dismissive of Intervenors. They reflect a lack of respect for hearing participants, a deep erosion of the standards and practices of natural justice that previous Boards have respected, and an undemocratic restriction of participation by citizens, communities, professionals and First Nations either by rejecting them outright or failing to provide adequate funding to facilitate meaningful participation. (Emphasis added)

[/quote]

He closed his letter resigning as an intervenor thusly:

[quote]The National Energy Board is not fulfilling its obligation to review the Trans Mountain Expansion Project objectively. Accordingly it is not only British Columbians, but all Canadians that cannot look to the Board’s conclusions as relevant as to whether or not this project deserves a social license. Continued involvement in the process endorses this sham and is not in the public interest. (Emphasis added)[/quote]

(Along with the presidency of BC Hydro, Eliesen sat on the board of Suncor Energy and was former CEO of the Manitoba Energy Authority and Ontario Hydro. In total, he has worked for seven governments and nine ministers of the crown.)

MP, MLAs avoid public meeting

What about expecting justice on the political front?

John Weston, the local Conservative MP, was not in attendance at Tuesday’s council meeting to discuss the controversial permit application from Fortis BC, which involves test drilling in a wildlife management area for its its planned pipeline expansion. He had no reason to be absent – the Commons is not in session and, besides, as with all government backbenchers, he doesn’t do anything anyway. Surely he should’ve at least troubled himself to be there to report back to the government on the feelings of the people present, his constituents.

I understand that neither of the Liberal MLAs were there either. Same criticism as Weston. They have nothing else to do of any use but to report back to the government what they see and hear.

Did I go to unpleasant meetings such as this when I was in cabinet?

You bet your life I did. If I hadn’t, Premier Bill Bennett would have quite rightly tossed me out on my ass. Perhaps standards were different then but I can tell you about meetings I was at that would curl your hair!

Not only has there been no canvassing of public opinion by the provincial government, they have fallen all over themselves to support the project and in fact staked a phoney claim to the 2013 election based on $100 billion coming from LNG.

I could go on but suffice it to say that not only has the public not been consulted, there is no fair process by which it can be consulted unless it’s through local Councils. In every case in the Howe Sound area, the Councils have rejected the notion of an LNG plant in Squamish and concomitant tanker traffic. However, these Council decisions evidently don’t count with either the provincial or the federal governments.

Civil disobedience on the horizon

My own personal opinion is that nothing will be accomplished except by civil disobedience. I have held that opinion for a long time and it is certainly not because I am a violent person. My whole political life has been fighting elections not policemen.

The fact remains, however, that times come when the citizen has no other option. When all of the cards are stacked, when the hearings are fixed, when politicians are in bed with the powerful, when all the laws favour one side of a dispute, then what choice do people have?

The people of Burnaby did a fantastic job fighting Kinder Morgan. That battle is far from over, thanks to the courage of the citizens of the area. The entire country saw the weak take on the strong and at least hold their own.

I must be careful here – I am not physically able to do that which I preach. I’m sorry about that. I will, however, continue to say my piece and I presume that if I continue to press for civil disobedience I’ll be in contempt of something sufficient to be in trouble with the authorities.

West, Weyler team up to battle Kinder Morgan

January 3, 2015Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersfeaturedRafe Mair

West, Weyler team up to battle Kinder Morgan — Ben West addressing a Vancouver crowd about Kinder Morgan in 2012 (Damien Gillis)

There’s big news on the environmental front!

Ben West, the eminent young environmentalist until now with Forest Ethics and, before that, the Wilderness Committee, has joined Rex Weyler fighting tanker traffic on the BC coast through Tanker Free BC. This makes a very potent combination indeed. (Full disclosure: My colleague, Common Sense Canadian publisher Damien Gillis, is a founding board member of TFBC along with Mr. Weyler).

For those who may not know, Rex Weyler was a founder of Greenpeace International and its biographer. He has been active in environmental matters for many years and in 2009 took up the cudgels against tanker traffic on our coast. Tanker Free BC was formed some 5 years ago, specifically to take on the Kinder Morgan issue and the organization laid much of the early groundwork for the campaign to block the project.

Ben is a first class student of the environment and a very able presenter. I have had the privilege of appearing at podiums with both he and Rex.

Huge proposed increase in tanker traffic

The number of tankers required on our coast to transport the oil proposed by Kinder Morgan runs about 400 per year – minimum. This doesn’t count tankers coming from Squamish from a proposed LNG plant.

Despite what the professional mariners tell us, it’s a matter of mathematics. Sooner or later we’ll have a serious accident on our coast. In fact, there’s nothing to say there won’t be more than one.

If this were a relatively minor matter, we could and would have to live with it. But they are transporting bitumen, or dilbit, which is highly toxic and, as the spill on the Kalamazoo River by Enbridge 4 1/2 years ago demonstrated, it is virtually impossible to clean up. This means, to articulate the obvious, that the risk of running tankers on our coast cannot possibly match any advantage it would confer upon the people of British Columbia.

It’s for this reason that opposition to both the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines has been so vigorous. Of course, part of the opposition has come from those who must live with the pipeline in their communities but the issue is the same – be it train, truck or pipeline, they transport a vicious and dangerous poison.

Oil-by-rail threat used to scare pipeline opponents

MP James Moore being interviewed by CBC's Chris Hall (Photo: James Moore/Twitter) — MP James Moore being interviewed by CBC’s Chris Hall (Photo: James Moore/Twitter)

At the same time as the West/Weyler story we hear from Tory cabinet minister James Moore that pipelines must come, otherwise transportation will be by rail which, by common consent, is far more dangerous than by pipeline.

I must confess here that I’m not certain about the capacity of rail to deliver a comparable quantity of oil – in the case of Kinder Morgan 780,000-1.000,000 barrels a day, and this is of course an important figure to know. If pipelines were simply not to happen, would rail transport be sufficient to fill up 400 or more likely 450 tankers per year?

The answer, according to the limited research facilities available to me, is that this is highly unlikely. Moreover, the safety factors are enormous and make those of pipelines pale into insignificance. This, of course, is the argument that James Moore and the supercilious finance Minister, Joe Oliver, are making – permit pipelines or else…

Weston continues “Environment IS Economy” refrain

Just by way of an aside, a few moments ago when Wendy brought the mail, there was yet again another release by my MP, John Weston, bleating once more “the environment IS the economy”. As I’ve mentioned before, this slogan has about as much meaning as “please adjust your clothing when leaving the lavatory” and gives an idea of typical Tory bafflegab which desperately hopes that their own appalling ignorance is matched by that of the bovine masses.

Rex and Ben face the ill-disguised ultimatum laid down by James Moore that bitumen will come through British Columbia one way or another. The Tories are, of course, in thrall to Alberta voters with an election coming up where every seat is crucial and the safety of unreliable British Columbians not on the radar.

Remember the bitumen

We must remember that the enemy is not the train or the pipeline or indeed the tanker – it is the bitumen from the tar sands. We’re being asked – indeed perhaps ordered – to transport this highly noxious substance through the wilds of our province to populated areas, into tankers and shipped down our coast.

Sham “Process”

The politicians are unconcerned about the feelings of the people of our province. Mr. Moore has, from the beginning, been contemptuous of public opinion and those of us who have fought against the transport of bitumen are portrayed as American-financed neo-hippies. The so-called “process” by which energy decisions are made is as phoney as a three dollar bill as has been amply demonstrated by no less a figure than Mark Eliesen, one of the most prominent energy experts in the country.

Public attention, diverted by the pipeline issue, has not considered that the governments of Canada and British Columbia would cast aside safety issues and threaten the transport of this terrible substance by rail. What this does, of course, is clarify the issue for Ben and Rex and all those who join them in the fight, very much including me. It is the two senior governments who are the enemies – the bitter enemies.

The public of British Columbia must, by civil disobedience if need be, convince the federal and provincial governments that we have sufficient democracy left in this country that the people still count, or we’ll end up with a an oil sands catastrophe on our land and on our coasts, whether we like it or not.

Tide may be turning on farms destroying salmon habitat

December 29, 2014Fisheries, OceansfeaturedRafe Mair

Tide may be turning on farms destroying salmon habitat — A coho spawning in a small stream (Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife)

I come today in praise of the Vancouver Sun and trust that events don’t prove that I should’ve approached the mainstream media with my usual skepticism.

First, let me tell you a story from my early life which you may have heard and, if so, please bear with me.

Coho spawn in the darndest places

When I was a young lad, my friend Denis and I used to bicycle down to the Musqueam Indian reserve and fish two tiny creeks, one which we called Tin Can Creek, more properly known as Musqueam Creek.

With shiner lines, a tiny hook and a bit of worm, we would catch small cutthroat trout and, as with all young boys, rejoice at every second.

At Tin Can Creek, one day, a First Nations lad with a gaff came along, bent down over the edge and scooped out a fish which must’ve run 5 or 6 pounds at least. We were thunderstruck! If we’d known there were fish that size in the creek, it might’ve scared us out of fishing it!

Moments later, and a bit further upstream, the lad did the same thing.

This taught me a lesson of a lifetime. These were coho salmon and this tiny creek contained their spawning ground. For those unschooled in these matters, the coho salmon is the second largest of the seven Pacific salmon* which inhabit our waters, and in my opinion is the most beautiful; certainly it’s very sought after as a sports fish and considered a delicacy by those who like eating fish.

It must be noted that thanks to the careful stewardship of the Musqueam Nation, this run has survived and prospered – a rarity indeed in Greater Vancouver.

As I grew older and got more involved in fishing and later in governments dealing with fishing, I learned that the coho is unique in that it doesn’t spawn in great numbers in rivers and lakes but in small runs in tiny streams and even ditches all up and down our coast. I learned too that the reason the coho was an endangered species in the Salish Sea area was loss of habitat due to agricultural practices and land development.

Farmers try to make a amends for habitat destruction

A front page article of Monday, December 29 in the Vancouver Sun tells how the paper’s “Minding The Farm” series – probing fish-bearing creeks on farms and activities by landowners which have damaged habitat – prompted some farmers to attempt habitat “remediation” on their properties.

One does not, unfortunately, gain the impression that the farmers are very enthusiastic about this program. To them, the creeks are no doubt a nuisance and very much get in the way of their normal farming activities. This is compounded, I’m sure, by the fact that some drainage ditches have even become spawning grounds.

The major culprit is waste. When this seeps into the creeks, it kills the fish, as simple as that.

Fish an “inconvenience” to farmers

Since I first learned of the problem it was obvious that farmers weren’t about to take a few fish in a creek seriously. They were no different than real estate developers who would report that there were only a “few fish” in the creek and therefore needn’t concern anyone.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been extremely slow off the mark over the years and has hesitated to charge anyone. (This longtime observer smells political interference). One fisheries officer, quoted in the article, showed his frustration by asking:

[quote]What does it take to get charged? You really have to try hard.[/quote]

One stream at a time

The question is one of overall public good. While it doesn’t seem a huge sacrifice to allow a handful of fish to be killed in a stream, to accommodate agriculture or a new suburb, the aggregate of such losses is unacceptable. Therefore, the solution is a step-by-step, small stream by small stream business – hard to implement, even harder to enforce.

We quickly run into the phrases “remedial measures” and the weasel word of all, “mitigation”. I do not regard a culvert or a re-created stream as either remedial or mitigating. Nor do fish biologists.

The basic decision the public must make is whether it’s worth it to save these small runs of fish. The Vancouver Sun believes that it is worth it and I agree with them.

A moral question

This question can’t be measured in dollars and cents – at least it ought not to be. One can always find a monetary reason to destroy things. The issue is, of course, monetary in the sense that progeny of these runs do supply sports and commercial fisherman, thus generating revenue – and it does cost money to preserve streams.

But can we, in all conscience, permit the destruction of salmon runs, however big or small, for any reason? Once we decide to destroy things for money, it is a slippery slope and we become cynics, for, as Oscar Wilde observed:

[quote]A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.[/quote]

The Pacific Salmon is what identifies British Columbia the world over. I don’t think it goes too far to say that it is sacred – the soul of our province.

It gets down to this: If British Columbians won’t protect and enhance the symbol of what our lovely home is all about, who will?

*Chinook, Coho, Chum, Sockeye, Pink, Rainbow (Steelhead) and Cutthroat.

Rafe: NDP Opposition should try some actual opposing

December 22, 2014Canada, Western CanadafeaturedRafe Mair

Rafe- NDP Opposition should try some actual opposing — BC NDP and Official Opposition Leader John Horgan (BCNDP.ca/youtube)

I’ve been very critical, especially recently in the tyee.ca, of John Horgan, leader of the NDP, and the Official Opposition itself. This is, I assure you, nothing personal but is entirely a matter of the quality of the opposition presented and the effect it has on forming public opinion.

Socred praise for Barrett NDP

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of talking to an old friend of mine of some 40 years, Grace McCarthy. As a couple of old pols will do, we started to reminisce. We got onto the topic of Oppositions and I was surprised – I shouldn’t have been – to hear both Grace and me extol the virtues of the NDP under Dave Barrett when we were in the House.

We talked about how the NDP kept us on our toes which, combined with a hostile press, did much to ensure that we moved carefully both in legislation and in policy.

I found both Grace and me not only congratulatory towards Dave Barrett, but there was a sense of warmth because both of us know what the opposition was supposed to do and enough time had passed for the personal sharpness to have disappeared. We agreed, of course, that we didn’t like it a damned bit when they did their job but that it was very much in the public interest.

The duty to oppose

The classic definition comes from Lord Randolph Churchill who said “it is the duty of the Opposition to oppose.” This doesn’t mean that it opposes the trivial but on all major issues it opposes the main parts.

A good example is Site C, which is as controversial an issue as British Columbia has seen in decades and, in fact, it goes back to my time in government in the 70s. In those days, our government rejected Site C largely based upon the cost, the lack of information as to alternatives and the consistent history of BC Hydro over-estimating its energy needs. “The more things change …”

With the present announcement of approval, Mr. Horgan should be dealing, may I say harshly, with a number of aspects of the development.

The residents of the area have a right to have their views expressed in the legislature and in the public. It doesn’t matter if Mr. Horgan thinks that it’s just “too bad” that they will lose their farms and homes – he and his colleagues must take up their case.

Plenty of faults to find with Site C

There is the question of the loss of 30,000 acres of farmland. Mr. Horgan may think that’s a worthwhile sacrifice but there are a hell of a lot of British Columbians who feel this land is sacred and that, indeed, it was the NDP which first made the inviolability of agricultural land the law.

There’s the question of alternative forms of energy. Mr. Horgan should have BC Hydro on the griddle asking about sources of supplementary power such as wind, tide and in particular geothermal. BC, we’re told, has virtually unlimited geothermal resources, yet there is a paucity of information on whether or not that could be harnessed instead of Hydro, or at least, supplementary to hydroelectric power.

NDP’s questionable support for LNG

The entire question of LNG is a huge one which Mr. Horgan chooses to gloss over.

Do we want to produce LNG with the damage that extraction does to the atmosphere?

Do we want to have “fracking” destroy the land around, gobble up the local water supply and pollute the water table with the waste?

Do we want to have LNG plants and the dangers they present?

Do we want to be enablers to other parts of the world so that instead of moving away from fossil fuel’s, they can use ours to their hearts’ content?

Do we want to run the risk of transporting LNG, especially in tankers down our fragile coast?

Cost of Site C

As one who has seen these things develop in the past, I would simply guess, just based on a gut the feeling, that the final price for Site C is likely to be closer to 12 billion than eight. Of course I could be wrong, but I bet my gut feeling is shared by many British Columbians who’ve watched these matters over the years.

Can Mr. Horgan assure us, as Leader of the Opposition, that he’s thoroughly tested this cost and is satisfied with it?

Instead of opposing in the way of our longstanding parliamentary practice, Mr. Horgan has chosen to ally himself with the Liberals, making this a “non-partisan issue”. (Now, in fairness, Mr. Horgan has retained some reservations in the area of revenue and need, but has not been vocally opposed to it.)

Where does NDP stand on the environment?

This brings into question this government’s entire environmental policy and whether or not Mr. Horgan is generally satisfied with it. If not, where is he opposed?

You simply cannot, logically, oppose the Ebridge pipeline because it brings toxic substances through our land and down the coast while at the same time supporting Kinder Morgan doing precisely the same thing.

You can’t logically reject the increased use of fossil fuels and then support LNG which, according to most scientists, poses the same danger to the environment as coal or oil.

Hardly a government in waiting

To be opposed to governmental policy, as a proper Official Opposition, doesn’t mean being against every jot and tittle. Moreover, in the fullness of time, you may support some or all of it. What it means really is the old American expression, “I’m from Missouri” and using skepticism to bring from the government a full justification of its policy, point by point.

There is another very serious aspect of the Official Opposition which Mr. Horgan seems to have overlooked. The Official Opposition should present to the public a “government in waiting” with its own policies in place as well as spokespeople for these policies.

Can anybody look at the Opposition as it exists today and say “I see a future government there”? I sure as hell can’t. I don’t even see a future Premier!

John Horgan and the NDP have less than 2 1/2 years to present themselves to the public has something to be supported.

Unless they get started on this project now, it will never get done in time.

“The environment IS the economy” says Tory MP Weston…Really?

December 19, 2014Canada, Energy and Resources, LNG, Oil&Gas, PoliticsfeaturedRafe Mair

The environment IS the economy says Tory MP Weston — Tory MP John Weston (from his annual Christmas video message/Youtube)

There is surely nothing quite as ridiculous as a Tory pretending that he cares. Money and rich friends they understand but when it comes to the values that ordinary people revere they’re at sea. In fact they’re bewildered by those who think that the poor ought to be considered by society or that such things as lakes and mountains and animals and parks and neighbourhoods have any serious meaning to people.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t understand that they must make believe and always speak in loving terms about the things that I’ve mentioned.

There’s another sure thing to be added to Benjamin Franklin’s “death and taxes”. It’s that by reading the bullshit in a Tory MP’s annual newspaper to his constituents you can determine, with only the minimum of thinking, what the Tories are really planning and what their electoral word games are going to be all about.

LNG in Howe Sound

I hate to be seen as picking on my MP, John Weston, but because I know him, I’m bewildered that he would prostitute his brains and compromise his honesty to the extent he has over the last three years.

Now, John is a very earnest sort of a chap and I’m sure honestly feels that he is front and centre in Canadian public life and of considerable importance to the governance of the nation. I fact, he is inconsequential and in three years has contributed nothing and couldn’t if he wanted to. Nor can any of his backbench colleagues. I would respect that and leave him alone if it weren’t for the fact that he pretends importance where there is none, as do his colleagues. It must be an awful thing to have to fake self-importance in order to keep up one’s self respect.

Let’s get down to cases. I live on the Sea-to-Sky in wonderful Lions Bay. I have not always lived here, of course, but I’ve always felt much attached to Howe Sound, having spent so many of my boyhood hours happily fishing and swimming and cruising in this area. It’s sacred.

Squamish, at the top of Howe Sound, is a growing town and it’s proposed that it be “blessed” with an LNG plant. I think I can say safely that the vast majority of citizens along Howe Sound oppose this vigorously. Squamish, in a stirring upset, recently elected a mayor who is also much opposed.

Weston attacks West Van Council over LNG ban

Last summer the West Vancouver City Council – among others in Howe Sound and on the Sunshine Coast – passed a resolution condemning this project. Mr. Weston took umbrage at this and went to Council with a spokesman for the Malaysian LNG outfit and demanded time for him to be heard. He was determined to have this decision overturned but the council, which understood the public mood much better than he did, remained firm.

If you read Mr. Weston’s annual rag, you might think that he had won a stunning victory. The bold headline sings praise for Council’s commitment to “Good Process”, even though it politely told him to get stuffed. In the body of the article, Mr. Weston plays down the disappointment the entire constituency knew he had and made believe that he was thrilled that he managed to get a hearing for his client.

Not satisfied with leaving after one paragraph, Mr. Weston prattles on for seven more dealing with the wonders of development. One paragraph probably tells the story

[quote]As MP, I am increasingly required to consider the impact of industrial projects on our economy and our environment. Throughout the summer, conversations [at] backyard barbecues and coffee gatherings [are] often related to responsible resource development. “The Environment IS the Economy” [emphasis his] is the message I am increasingly taking to cabinet and other leaders.[/quote]

That is, of course, rubbish. Mr. Weston is not taking any messages to cabinet nor to any leaders, nor does any other Tory backbencher. Who in hell is he kidding? They’re overpaid ciphers who do what they are told and speak when they’re spoken to.

IS the environment the economy?

But let me deal with this slogan “The Environment IS the Economy ” – to which Weston recently dedicated a column on his website directed at yours truly. That’s a very helpful slogan indeed and reminds me of “Conscription if necessary but not necessarily Conscription”, “The Land is Strong” and “Please adjust your clothing before leaving the Lavatory”.

This all leads up to Mr. Weston’s favourite word – and I assume it is the favourite of his colleagues, – “process”. As long as you have “process” you can do anything.

When the Tory government took away protection for fish under an omnibus bill, Mr. Weston, in my presence, enthusiastically supported this move on the grounds that now there was “process”. In other words where it was once forbidden to bugger up fish habitat, now you could do it if you went through the proper “process”.

Mr. Weston goes on to say, “If a project respects the factors just mentioned, I am likely to support it. Otherwise, I will not support it.”

Again we see the ridiculousness of a Tory backbencher trying to act important. The plain fact is that Prime Minister Harper doesn’t give a fiddler’s fart what John Weston thinks about a project. The truth of the matter is that backbencher Weston was instructed to try to get the West Vancouver Council to reverse itself – after all, Harper and his poodle, Christy Clark uncritically support LNG. He failed and now must save face.

“Process”

I have spoken of this before but I think it’s worth revisiting. The “process” involved in environmental matters is a fraud. Now that’s admittedly a nasty word to use, I agree, but let’s examine the position taken by Mark Eliesen who was, until he resigned, an intervenor in the Kinder Morgan hearings before the National Energy Board.

Mr Eliesen is former Chair of BC Hydro, CEO of the Manitoba Energy Commission, CEO of Ontario Hydro, CEO of Manitoba Hydro and a director of Suncor.

In his lengthy resignation letter, Mr. Eliesen concluded:

[quote]In effect, this so-called public hearing process has become a farce, and this Board a truly industry captured regulator…The National Energy Board is not fulfilling its obligation to review the Trans Mountain Expansion Project objectively. Accordingly it is not only British Columbians, but all Canadians that cannot look to the Board’s conclusions as relevant as to whether or not this project deserves a social license. Continued involvement in the process endorses this sham and is not in the public interest.[/quote]

John Weston no doubt believes his own bullshit, but that’s what it is. Without hesitation, I would take the word of Mark Eliesen over Weston’s and most certainly over that of Prime Minister Harper or any of his cabinet toadies.

“The Environment IS the Economy” (or is it the other way around?) simply means, in Tory Talk, “Always speak in hushed, respectful terms about the environment – but, for God’s sake, don’t ever let environmental considerations get in the way of our friends making money.”

Gerry Hummel's cartoon on John Weston support of private river power projects — Gerry Hummel’s cartoon on John Weston’s support of private river power projects (IPPs)

Calgary paper dispenses free parenting advice to BC’s Kinder Morgan opponents

December 9, 2014Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersfeaturedRafe Mair

Kim Fink-Jensen (left) and daughter Kate pose with MP Kennedy Stewart after protesting the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline at Burnaby Mountain (Photo: Kim Fink-Jensen/facebook)

I say two cheers and a hey nonny nonny for the Vancouver Province. How good it was of them to re-print, on the op-ed page yesterday a lecture from one David Marsden of the Calgary Herald editorial board, entitled “Pipeline foes could use a lesson in civility”.

Energy politics, Alberta-style

Now the Calgary Herald is an unqualified supporter of the Oil Patch and the Province of Alberta’s energy policy. They are indifferent to the noxious gases streaming out of the Tar Sands into the lungs of nearby First Nations folk, and who gives a damn about and those pesky fish upon which they feed?

They ignore the “hysterical” claims of cancer deaths linked to the Tar Sands and all of the other diseases the medical profession has uncovered in the area. They realize that piping all that highly noxious bitumen through British Columbia to the Far East brings money and lots of it into to the producers’ hands, thus bundles of taxes to the Alberta government, and that money far outweighs any of these silly social concerns possessed by “liberal” bleeding hearts who are against all development.

I might add for those who are not great fans of the Alberta government’s energy policy, you might look at Andrew Nikiforuk’s Tyee articles on Ann Croft, a lady in Alberta who was apparently personally injured and lost her drinking supply due to “fracking”. You’ll see that the Alberta government, in keeping with its obligation to the people to cut down costs, has so stonewalled this poor woman that she may be forced to accept a totally inadequate settlement from Encana and nothing from the government’s energy regulator nor environment department.

In that article is an amazing recording of a nationally known lawyer, Glenn Solomon, who acts for the Alberta government and told this lady that they will throw every obstacle in her way to prevent her getting what she childishly thinks is justice.

Free parenting advice from Calgary

Now, Mr. Marsden, who apparently doesn’t have enough to worry about in Alberta, has advice for those ignorant, anti-capitalist demonstrators in Burnaby who, he tells us, spat on the police and said naughty things.

I would be the first to agree that peaceful demonstration does not include spitting for any kind of physically aggressive act. But to say that people must maintain the politeness of a Sunday morning at church is at asking a bit too much when you consider what it is they’re demonstrating against.

Is it a burden on their intellect to ask the Marsdens of the world to understand that this is their home, their neighbourhood and that they have had some experience with what happens when a Kinder Morgan pipeline bursts?

Not content with this, Mr. Marsden specifically takes a run at the Fink-Jensen family for allowing their 11 year daughter to be part of the demonstration and to court arrest. Marsden referred this matter to some professor in the far east of the United States who clucked his tongue about children flouting the law. I gather Mr. Marsden had to go far and wide to find such a prof.

Kinder Morgan flouted the law

The fact that it was Kinder Morgan who was flouting the law, and that the case against them is pending in the courts, seems to have escaped Mr. Marsden’s attention. Are Canadian citizens not to be permitted to defend their homes and neighbourhoods from pipelines carrying highly noxious bitumen?

He also ignores the basic points raised here and by so many readers supporting Kate and her folks.

Kate asked to protest the use of her park and her neighborhood in the manner proposed by the company. She fully understood what the consequences were. In fact, her parents carefully advised her about flouting what was apparently the law and what consequences could flow.

What should we be teaching our children anyway?

There are many, including me and countless other British Columbians, who believe that it’s first class citizenship for parents to advise their children what the issues are in the world and what they can do about them.

Sometimes these are beyond the comprehension of children, but in this case, surely not. Here was a park and a neighbourhood proposed to be desecrated by a company wishing to put a dangerous pipeline through it and it is suggested that young Kate didn’t understand those issues! The question of course arises as to who was really breaking the law.

I realize that the Vancouver Province feels a special obligation to right wing zealots like the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, the BC Fish Farmers’ Association, any and all pipelines, the Tar Sands, the Alberta government’s energy policy and so on, but in discharging what it believes to be its obligation, surely it can spare us the lectures of the Tar Sands fraternity through the editorial board of its sister paper, the Calgary Herald.

Having to put up with the Vancouver Province itself is cross enough to bear by a public deprived of anything resembling an independent media.

Listen to the above-mentioned audio recording of a Calgary lawyer discussing the government and fracking industry’s legal methods – courtesy of Will Koop.

Rafe: What’s the NDP thinking jumping on Liberals’ sinking LNG ship?

December 6, 2014Energy and Resources, LNG, Oil&GasfeaturedRafe Mair

afe--What's-the-NDP-thinking-jumping-on-Liberals'-sinking-LNG-ship — BCNDP Leader John Horgan talking LNG at UBCM meeting (Photo: BCNDP)

I suppose it’s not unusual for an electorate to feel swindled. It sure as hell happens often enough.

The BC electorate has every right to feel swindled in the election of 2013 by the Christy Clark government’s solemn promise to make us all wealthy through LNG plants. This was a very specific promise and even went as far as promising a “prosperity fund” of $100 billion, plus all of our provincial debt soon paid off. This was crap, they knew it, we fell for it.

Now, for God’s sake, the NDP opposition has joined in the swindle at a time when the Liberals, now that their promises cannot possibly be fulfilled, are frantically looking for a way out for the 2017 election.

NDP support comes as LNG industry falls apart

It’s incomprehensible that the John Horgan opposition would support the Liberals on their LNG endeavours, particularly since Petronas has all but admitted defeat, and they are supposed to be the first out of the box!

What’s even more distressing for those who want LNG plants as soon as possible and as many as possible, is the statement by Petronas that nothing will be going until the end of the decade (which is three years after the next election). Even more troubling for LNG lovers is experts like Bloomberg suggesting that Canada’s LNG industry is highly vulnerable to intense global competition.

It’s really difficult to see just how the campaign promises for 2017 are going to shape up.

The Liberals, like Mr. Micawber, are hoping “something will turn up”.

What is the NDP’s plan for BC?

There has been nothing from Mr. Horgan or the NDP to suggest that they have a new plan for BC. That may come, but it’s pretty late to start setting the stage for an unknown program to be their campaign 2 1/2 years from now.

As it now stands, we have the Liberals looking for a way to avoid dealing with LNG in 2017, with the NDP, not caught in the Liberals’ trap but one of their own making, really not knowing what the hell to do. At least the NDP have plenty of experience in that regard.

It is a new world out there, something that the media has not cottoned onto and, apparently, something that has escaped the notice of Premier Clark and opposition leader Horgan.

Public hungers for environmental leadership

The public are in a strong environmentalist mood. The municipal elections in November demonstrated that but, I think more importantly, the comments to The Common Sense Canadian and The Tyee demonstrate that there is a hard-core, and growing opposition to pipelines, LNG plants and the like which is much different than the cries of years gone by.

There is no doubt that the public’s appetite for preserving our environment got a great boost back in the days of Clayoquot Sound and before, but these things take time to mature and in my belief the environmentalism of the public has reached new heights and more is yet to come.

I don’t for a moment think that the public is against all development or anything of the sort. This is why the “right” has so much trouble dealing with the issue. They can’t think beyond their political philosophy that whatever is dug, cut down, mined, drilled, or transported must be good and those who ever, even for a moment, oppose those things must be evil. For the “right”, unrestrained capitalism is a religious tenet and non-believers deserve contempt.

Citizens fed up with being ignored by politicians, media

Rafe: Critics of Burnaby Mountain citizens are out of touch with public will for change — 84 year-old retired librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook)

In fact, a growing number of citizens don’t see the mindless greed of industry and their bought-off governments as their salvation. Moreover, more and more voters are pissed off at not being consulted and not having their views represented by their politicians.

The media’s mindless and dedicated adherence to the desires of big business make them not only unbelievable, and all but devoid of influence, but damn near unreadable to boot.

When ordinary, decent, British Columbians see their fellow citizens threatened with jail because they want to preserve their parks and neighbourhoods, they’re disgusted.

In a way, it all rather goes back to Lincoln’s aphorism:

[quote]You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.[/quote]

One might respectfully add to that, once the people know that they have been fooled, they get very cross indeed.

Reform is coming

The political systems, federal and provincial, make it very difficult for parties of protest, such as the Green Party, to make headway. The present system suits party lines and party discipline, not individual thinking and representation of the voter. 2017 will be, however, a time when the Green Party will demonstrate whether, even under a lousy system, they can gain public support. It will be, for them, a watershed election.

There will be reform both of the system and the way we are governed. That may take time, although what needs to be done is pretty obvious to most of us.

No matter how big a majority a government has, it can’t govern if the people don’t support it. The public will continue to protest environmental degradation of which they do not approve. That the traditional parties don’t understand that means only that it’s going to take the people a little longer to make their views materialize in reform.

Be all of that as it may, reform is coming, sooner or later, and you can make book on that.