The New Liberal leader will, on several questions, be like the fighter sitting on his stool and refusing to answer the bell because he knows he’s going to get the crap knocked out of him.
One of those is BC Rail.
Another is private v public power which, in essence, is combined into Campbell’s so-called run-of-river policy.
We must all know that no matter who the leader is, he/she will duck these issues and they will be greatly aided by the mainstream media people who are not allowed, apparently, to bring them up.
For the NDP this is a glorious opportunity to win, outright, two huge issues – but before they can do that they must establish their understanding of these two issues and offer solutions.
The NDP didn’t have the opportunity to really deal with BC Rail for the serious stuff was before the courts and no one would have believed that the Liberals would shut the case down just as former Minister of Finance, Gary Collins, and the Premier himself were to give evidence.
On the Energy/Rivers issue the NDP was woefully weak in the election campaign. For much of the campaign the NDP candidate could only sloganize (a new word I just invented) with such puffery as “we’ve got to stop giving our rivers away”, which was true but scarcely did the issue justice. The NDP have a history of sloganizing – neat little ditties that mask ignorance or lack of courage or both. They bring an appropriate giggle and applause at NDP bun tosses but do nothing to enlighten the voter or present a solution.
First, then, the NDP must show that it understands the colossal and perfidious – in the sense of cheating citizens – policy the Gordon Campbell government have us involved in. The giveaway is immense – large corporations get subsidized by the public to get paid double or more what their power is worth by BC Hydro (at a huge loss), for power that’s not for British Columbians but for export.
Read that again. It defies belief doesn’t it? And until this issue is understood by political parties it won’t be understood by the public.
The secret contracts BC Hydro is forced to make are unconscionable. The NDP must pledge to make them public and if they are indeed unconscionable, refuse to honour them. The analogy is rather like the mayor elected to clean up city hall, then, when elected, promising to honour all the sweetheart deals his predecessor made with his family and cronies.
Politics is a tough game and demands courageous answers to difficult questions. This means that the party itself must understand the issues and have the platform very firm on what’s wrong and what must happen.
This is not easy, for the business community will scream and the NDP has done a lot of work to make inroads there. Business people, in general, don’t like the NDP anyway but smaller business people are far easier to deal with. Once the policy is in place, NDP spokespeople around the province must speak, with knowledge, to the people all around BC, the business community being welcome. They won’t be the only ones out in the communities speaking on this subject.
I do know of one NDP candidate who thoroughly understands this issue – John Horgan. Others may also understand and we at The Common Sense Canadian would welcome a blog from any other leadership candidate interested in letting our readership hear their view.
I’m often accused of being a turncoat because I was once a Social Credit Minister.
Sticks and stones etc … I’ve been a strong environmentalist for a great many years. I don’t believe for one second that Premier Bill Bennett would have jeopardized – hell, killed – BC Hydro for any reason much less by forcing them to pay private companies double for energy it didn’t need meaning they had to export it at a huge loss.
If he had believed that, we’d never have met, let alone become colleagues.
I believe with every fiber that the saving of our environment – our salmon, our rivers and the ecologies they support – is far and away the biggest political issue of the day. As I often said during the last election – a government might be a very bad government on fiscal issues but if it is, that can be fixed by a new government.
Once you lose your farmland, your fish, your rivers and the ecologies they support, you can never get them back.
I am a fence sitting voter looking for a reason to vote NDP in this election. I do like the change in leadership; Carole Janes gave her best and I thank her but it was past time to go. As far as the other comments here; they are what I have come to expect from single minded people who have not been in power for so long and blame the voters of BC. When these with the bluster start looking in the mirror to see the reason the NDP are constantly shunned shortly after they get into power and most often rejected by the majority of voters. Clean it up, spout some facts with your opinions and don’t start the pre-election period by threatening that failure means you will hideout in the mountains as a survivalist, abandoning civilization while sniping under the guise of civil disobedience.
Unfortunately for BC, Campbell’s DUI didn’t do him in. Since then the Liberal’s record on IPPs, PPPs, BCR, the HST, and the DFB (double-fudge-it budget) should see ’em all, complicit MLAs, ministers (past and present), premier wannabes, and lobbyists and MSM shills pilloried for abuse of public trust.
If the majority reinstates this malfeasant bunch of scoundrels I may have to head for the hills with a shotgun and a box of shells, a fly rod and some flies, a coffee pot ‘n’ coffee, a cast iron pot, a sack each of flour, salt, sugar, a good saw and an axe and a copies of Thoreau’s, Walden: Life in the Woods, and Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government).
It’s precisely because of the ruin-of-rivers conspiracy that I support John Horgan for NDP leader. He knows this file intimately and has spoken clearly about its perils. I agree that the NDP had been delivering tepid slogans (or, I suppose, “sloganisms” in Raif-ese) on this and other important issues. After the ouster of Carole James, I should hope the NDP understands this, and Horgan has that one extra attribute to add to his natural combativeness. Be straightforward and clear about what the party will do about the biggies: Hydro, Ferries, BC Rail, etc.
That’s why I dislike the Chicken Little doom and gloom that we’ll never get our rivers back, and other such talk.
I’d like to hear with my own ears, and see the words coming out of the mouths of the NDP: If you vote for us we will expropriate and return (fill in the blank) to public ownership and control. Anybody doesn’t like the terms, see ya in court.
Bound by international agreement? Pff! Sovereignty rests with BC first (ask the Queen or read the Constitution.)
Those kind of tough positions do wonders to focus public attention on what is really at stake, gets things out in the open where the privateers can’t hide.
Rafe, you are absolutely correct. In order to stop this now, there needs to be a unified voice. Realistically the NDP is the best avenue to follow. I have already written to NDP hq stating we don’t want the same people in charge of this campaign. They did a very poor job of raising awareness of the lake drain private power projects. The lack of balanced and knowledgeable reporting by the mainstream media is very troubling. Is treasonous too strong a word? The NDP is off on the same track with the current campaign video. Though very important issues were raised, there was not a single mention of energy policy. There is real possibility of gaining votes from people that would not normally vote NDP if only they saw a firm policy. John Horgan is the only one so far that has effectively articulated the seriousness of this issue. The the HST is just a piece of paper that can be modified. Once our rivers and our BC Hydro are relinquished to foreign control, that’s it….they are gone….no pencil eraser can fix it. Small business is different from big business, they are not benefited on the foreign stock exchange. They do real work adding value, their support can be garnered.