Justin Trudeau is not as young as he looks – obviously. If he was, he would have noticed a sea change in public attitudes that this old man, more of his father’s generation, has not just noticed but takes as obvious and natural.

Prime Minister, lets take just a very short look down the road and start with parliament. You are in the lull before the storm, sir, and you would be wise to  think about it, not only in your interest but that of the country.

Canada is a complacent place. It doesn’t like change. We always avoid it by making perfection the enemy of improvement. That’s what happened in 2005 when BC narrowly defeated a new electoral system more because opponents cast doubt than demonstrated flaws in a governance method that worked fine elsewhere.

Please pay attention here, Mr. Trudeau. People are slow to react to injustice if it’s not accompanied by serious pain and people have become accustomed to what pain there is. But eventually the dam breaks and when that happens, all political hell breaks loose. I think – and I’m far from alone in this – that moment is nigh.

First, let me deal with the “democracy deficit.”

Government for and by elites

We’re taught to believe that the people, through their MPs, run parliament and pass laws for the general good of the people. That, sir, is demonstrable nonsense.

Parliament is run by the elite of the nation for the benefit of the elite who control the power structures – industry, organized labour, major lending institutions and, most notably, the editorial offices of the Mainstream Media. In fact, the elite have become so used to getting their way that they usually don’t even trouble themselves with parliaments – they just get you to  declare the desired policy. Tell me,  Mr. Trudeau, when did the people have that debate and vote in Parliament on the proposed LNG plant in Squamish? How about the Kinder Morgan pipeline? Or Site C Dam?

In all likelihood, a civic council proposing a crosswalk will have public hearings, a passionate debate, and a proper vote. You simply casually let it be known that a $15 or 20 billion project will take place and that no genuine public consultation, much less approval, will be sought. The press applauds like trained seals and those who will profit handsomely sing your praises while the public can only scowl in frustration.

Do you think this will go on forever, Prime Minister?

You have sung such lovely songs about climate change and became a world star at the Paris Conference, saying, “Today, with my signature, I give you our word that Canada’s efforts will not cease. Climate change will test our intelligence, our compassion and our will. But we are equal to that challenge.”

When President Trump opted out of the Paris agreements last June, your criticism was scathing. Your words were almost warlike!

[quote]We are deeply disappointed that the United States federal government has decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Canada is unwavering in our commitment to fight climate change and support clean economic growth. Canadians know we need to take decisive and collective action to tackle the many harsh realities of our changing climate.

While the U.S. decision is disheartening, we remain inspired by the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies. We are proud that Canada stands united with all the other parties that support the Agreement. We will continue to work with our domestic and international partners to drive progress on one of the greatest challenges we face as a world.

This is not only about the huge economic opportunities of clean growth and the need to address the pressing threats of climate change. This is about an ambitious and unshakeable desire to leave a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable planet for our kids and for generations to come.

We are all custodians of this world…[/quote]

That’s been the talk, Mr. Trudeau, let’s look at the walk.

Where the rubber meets the road

From the moment you returned from Paris you have passionately supported the refining, use, and sale of LNG, the worst of all the fossil fuels in terms of impact on the atmosphere. You forced Woodfibre LNG in Squamish on us based upon fraudulent Environmental Assessments or, in the critical matter of fitness of Howe Sound for LNG tankers, no assessment at all and even contrary to industry standards.

Your consultations? None with the House of Commons, none with the public, indeed you didn’t even bother to inform the local Liberal MP!

Kinder Morgan. You have placed critical areas of British Columbia into certain disaster in Burrard Inlet, the Salish Sea, the Gulf Islands, the Straits of Juan de Fuca and beyond and threatened to use force on any who get in the way. This is your position: revive the filthy Tar Sands, use the sensitive coast of BC as a sewer, ship the highly toxic bitumen to Asia where it will burned, the resultant methane poison pumped into the atmosphere to pollute the entire world including Canada, all while you praise the business acumen and patriotism of Alberta and call British Columbians bad Canadians and threaten them.

And then there is Site C, not only an environmental disaster to all affected but a financial boondoggle of the first order.

I’ve warned you in the past and warn you again that if you do these things, you will split the country, if not politically, in terms of loyalty. We have values that all Canada once had – apparently we are now alone.

A new era

I warn you of this too: The chickens will soon be home to roost. People are waking up. The environment is no longer the private preserve of long haired youth. You wouldn’t have noticed, Prime Minister, but that summer day in 1993 in Clayoquot Sound when 900 so-called “tree huggers” were thrown in jail, British Columbia lost its virginity and came of age.

The public are not only noticing your assault on our wondrous, precious legacy but you’re doing it as a dictator. When I compared the ability of our Liberal MP to the effectiveness of a fencepost with hair, I was flattering her.

There have been two books – about to be three – on the market exposing this, the first two in 2014; the allegations have never been denied, much less disproved. The first, in time, is Tragedy in the Commons by Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan (Random House, 2014).     

It relies upon the evidence of 50 retired MPs and it tells how useless and powerless MPs have become, down to being little more than ombudsmen for the bureaucracy, ensuring that pension cheques arrive on time and that sort of thing. They jealously guard the right to personally deliver cheques of any size even when they are routine government payments they had nothing to do with. These payments always have the local press there, complete with cameras. 

The second, Irresponsible Government (Dundern 2014) is by Brent Rathgeber, an Edmonton lawyer who left the Harper government in disgust over the very matters I have mentioned here. Both books are easy-to-read, compelling presentations and from those who have seen the inside and know how to report. I personally felt a strong sense of déjà vu reading each of thess highly readable and irrefutable stories of prime ministerial dictatorship in action.

The third book is called POLITICALLY INCORRECT: How Canada Lost Its Way and The Simple Path Home. I wrote it and it will be out later this month.

There will be more. So my point, Prime Minister, is that the jig is almost up and soon the entire country will see that it’s been cheated of its prize possession – the right to govern itself. How the country handles that, Prime Minister, depends on how the elite handle it.

Perhaps my book will pass unnoticed but I can tell you, Mr. Trudeau, just as sure as God made little green apples, the story it tells will not go on untold much longer.

And your legacy will be secure – the last, arrogant tyrant to tromp his jackboots over this glorious province of ours. 

I pray that I’m still around to join nearly 5 million other voices yelling “good bloody riddance”.

Dear Prime Minister,

I’ve reached a point where I can say what I please without concern for personal consequences. My age of ambition is long gone and social disapproval simply doesn’t matter anymore.

That is where I am and intend to speak my piece.

I’m a native British Columbia born in Vancouver a long time ago. I have a lifetime love of my province from one end to the other and I inherited a sense of deep anger when I see unfairness.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve resented that my province has been unfairly treated, a resentment that has increased steadily over the years. We have been badly cheated politically and economically, accompanied by an attitude of arrogance from central Canada, which runs everything, an attitude that I find irritating beyond toleration.

Start with the humiliating fact that BC has but 6 senators while New Brunswick has 10 and PEI 4. This, along with the federal government appointing our senators, who are supposed to hold that very government’s feet to the fire, is outrageous. This and the “First Past The Post” system ensures that all political power rests, unchallengeable, in Central Canada. To see how this is resented in BC, you need only look at the 1992 Charlottetown Accord, designed to make one province juridically superior, opposed, thank God, by your father, and rejected by 67.9% of British Columbians!

Because of the Senate and the First Past The Post system in the House of Commons, Central Canada invariably has the Prime Minister who, given a majority, controls all federal legislation and policy. Please don’t pretend that our lot of Liberal toadies have any power except to say “yes sir”.

Most British Columbians care little about the Governor-General since, under central Canadian arrogant navel gazing, none have ever come from this, the third largest province. The G-G is appointed either to mollify Quebec, Bay Street, or the Central Canada artsy fartsy crowd. The present Governor-General, David Johnston, a Tory Grandee, was, by an amazing coincidence, appointed shortly after he, in the pay of Tory PM Stephen Harper, gave former Tory PM Brian Mulroney a “get out of jail free card”. Lyin’ Brian was pleased, Harper was pleased, Johnston was pleased. You have to say this about Central Canada: they look after each other.

Under the constitution, provinces control their natural resources – except when it comes to fish. The Pacific salmon has been so mismanaged by Ottawa that one is tempted to suggest it’s deliberate. Going too far? How else can one explain the foreign fish farms, not just permitted in BC, but actively promoted by a DFO prepared to destroy the Pacific salmon by disease, sea lice, and, when they escape, crowding them off their spawning redds?

As a BC minister, I examined the history of federal involvement back to 1871 and the record is appalling. Ask First Nations, who are the past, present, and future victims of this gross mismanagement, how they see your stewardship! 

With respect, prime minister, British Columbia and Canada no longer have the same set of values. A nation can survive and prosper with great diversity. It can have many languages, a plethora of different originating cultures, all races, colours, and creeds – yet so long as there is a common set of basic values, it can form a strong nation. That is the critical point. Once that is gone the nation no longer exists in fact, no matter what the Constitution says.

The basic values of British Columbians and Canada diverge on this central question: Which is more important – our way of life, surroundings, and the environment or the growth of industry, resource extraction, and moneymaking?

It’s not all or nothing – each side will always concede a little bit of the other – but the trouble is that our side is compelled to concede virtually all while yours pays lip service only with pallid environmental rules, never enforced if they ever really get in the way. Our side accepts the need for a robust economy, but not at the cost of destroying a way of life that preserves the enormous natural benefits God gave us.

We in British Columbia have learned some hard lessons, most important of which is there isn’t always another valley full of trees to chop down. The forestry industry in British Columbia, thanks to the courage of many mostly young men and women over the last 60 years, now is in sight of self perpetuation. That has morphed into an overall attitude which takes into consideration those values in British Columbia we have always coveted but are under serious attack by the industry-at-all-costs movement in Canada, of which, by the Kinder Morgan approval, you are now leader. You, the Prime Minister, are our enemy!

It has perhaps come as a surprise to you as it has come as a very unpleasant surprise to much industry, especially the fossil fuel industry, that we so highly regard our environment, especially, though not exclusively, our mountains, lakes, rivers, trees, farmland, coastline and ocean. You don’t seem to realize that Burrard inlet, Howe Sound, the Salish Sea, the Gulf Islands,  the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the west coast are sacred to Btitish Columbians. Other regions have their own sacred values and we support them in their fight to protect them, with particular regard at this moment for the Site C Dam proposal in the Peace River.

I don’t believe I draw too long a bow when I say that we understand that the French language and culture means means so much to Quebec yet you scoff at us in British Columbia because our natural blessings mean just as much to us. I cannot understand why you and other Canadians are unable to understand just how vehemently we are opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline and how far we are prepared to go to defend against it. We wouldn’t for a milli-second tolerate this desecration of what we hold dear by a BC Tar Sands, BC financiers and BC tanker companies – why the devil do you think we feel less resolved because it’s the Alberta Tar Sands, Bay Street and other foreign bankers or offshore tanker companies?

Mr. Trudeau, sir, you have this to answer for. Virtually all the world of science agrees that we must wean ourselves off of the use of fossil fuels. You made an instant international reputation for yourself at the Paris conference in 2015 by taking that very stand. We, in this province, took you seriously. We did not believe that the Tar Sands of Alberta, for example, would ever pose a threat to British Columbia under the clear mandate you delivered.

Now, we find that you didn’t mean what you said. Not only have you approved an LNG plant in Squamish, against the wishes of most British Columbians, now you propose grave consequences on an infinitely grander scale, to revive the Tar Sands and place the entire risk for transporting bitumen to market upon British Columbia. Permit me, sir, to correct myself. It is not risk that we’re dealing with but mathematical certainty.

The only question is how bad the damage will be. We are not being told the truth when industry and governments make it appear as if there is almost no chance of tanker collisions, either with each other or something else. One only has to chart the world statistics, which I happen to do, to know that that is absolutely untrue. Industry and your government make it appear that even if there are spills of bitumen that the cleanup facilities are such that there is nothing to worry about. That’s bullshit, sir, and you know it!

We can read, we can watch television, we can hear what witnesses have to say. We know about the Enbridge/Kalamazoo spill in 2010 and we know that accident has not been cleaned up to this day and it’s unlikely that it ever will be. We know that in a very short time, bitumen sinks and no longer can be effectively cleaned up. We have also seen examples of the Christy Clark’s speedy “world-class cleanup” procedures at work and can only thank God that the spills were moderate considering the pathetic efforts at cleanup.

I don’t wish to carry on any further with that, Mr. Prime Minister, but I do want you to know, as I’m sure you do, that I scarcely speak for the people of British Columbia. Having said that, I believe that we’ve had enough. More than enough! We believe the right to our environment outweighs any so-called right to move dangerous goods over and through our province.

We say that our right to our environment  outweighs any so-called right to move dangerous goods over and through our province. That, sir, is the essential difference in values that we possess and that you possess.

I believe that this is simply a fair assessment and a warning – not in any way a threat – but I can say that if you force the Kinder Morgan pipeline upon us, as you can with your money and your soldiers, you will create a rift between my province and Canada that will never, ever heal. Of course, I could be wrong on that but, sir, I’m not wrong to observe that would be a dreadful legacy to leave when, as with all of us, you must go. You no doubt believe you understand Canada – take my word for it, sir, I understand my province that I have served at the highest level and love every square millimetre of it.  I have lived in several places and taken my fly rod with me to most others.

Mr. Trudeau, we love this province with all our hearts and souls and we’re not about to let you take it away from us.