Tag Archives: Politics

Open & Honest Government – An Independent MLA’s Plea

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As she begins

her tenure as premier, I ask only one thing of Christy Clark—that she will lead
this province into a renaissance of open and honest democratic government.
That’s all.

 

British Columbia
and its people have been bruised by this government and its secretive,
arrogant, centralized leadership.
Now is the perfect time for the new Premier to heed demands for a
renewal of democracy in B.C. and a change to the way in which politics is done.

 

How might things
change?  Certainly, government
needs to change how it responds to the people.  But for the elected MLAs to actually do their job, and to
represent the people as they expect us to do, our political institutions also
need to change.

 

There are three
broken elements in B.C. politics.
One is the centralization of power and influence—and the resulting
failure to respond to and respect the people. Second is the manner in which the
legislature does its business.  And
third is the structure of the party system itself. 

 

We all have
sensed the centralization of power, but what we might not have seen is how that
influences the decisions of government and sets up the reality that the
people—and the opposition—become nothing more than distractions. 

 

And when that
power has an ideology, it naturally listens to those who reflect and can make
that ideology a reality. We saw it with the NDP and we are seeing it with the
Liberals. We are witnessing the remaking of the institutions of government to
serve a corporate citizen.

 

Power has
responded to industry in many ways:
the Forestry Act was gutted; the Clean Energy Act has centred power in
the Cabinet; the new Water Act contemplates the sale of water licences, which
will mean the eventual control of that resource by industry.  Environmental legislation has been
manipulated to favour developers.
Regional land use powers have been stripped.  The Oil and Gas Commission is a captured agency with little
legislative control.

 

And the power to
oversee the use of resources is now centred in one super ministry—a secret
decision made exclusively by the former premier.

 

We are losing trust
in our institutions. Which means we are losing faith in government. So how might
we stop the unrestricted centralization and abuse of power? 

 

First, the
elected Caucus should choose its leader. That doesn’t mean favour won’t be
curried and the leader won’t exercise power;but it does mean Caucus will have influence and provide a
check and balance to the unrestrained exercise of power. It does mean there is
an internal mechanism that can resist the centralization of decision-making.

 

A Caucus should be
able to vote secretlyduring
internal debates and the decision of a Caucus must influence Cabinet policy.  Secret votes are the only way to ensure caucus members can’t
be influenced by fear or favour as they express the will of their
constituents. 

 

The second issue
is how the Legislature does its business.
Our system is supposedly one where the government is held to account
during question period.  Where
legislation is tabled and debated.
Where the Throne Speech is deliberated and where the Budget is reviewed.
It is the forum, supposedly, in which the people are represented.

 

But in reality,
no one is listening, because no one has to listen. 

 

Except for the
occasional problem a minister takes under consideration not one word spoken in
the legislature has any impact on government.  The only impact is through the media, which means the Fourth
Estate – the media – is the actual repository of opposition power.

 

In this modern
world, with everyone watching and capable of being involved, the Members of the
Legislative Assembly must have influence
if representation is to mean anything.
And that means a substantial change to the legislative committee
structure is critical.

 

Committees are
creatures of the Legislature.  Even
so, they only meet when empowered by a government motion and in fact, most never meet.  Environment, Health, Crown Corporations, Education – none has
met since I took my seat in the House.

 

Rules must
require regular meetings. Committees must be independent of Ministers and able
to set their own agendas.  While
the Committee Chairs are ostensibly elected, it is a leader’s decision and that
must change. Committee membership should be an even-number-plus-one of
government members, although I would argue that the very real need for checks
and balances within the parliamentary system make it reasonable to suggest that
the committee majority should lie with the Opposition.


To ensure MLAs are actually able to act as the people’s representatives, the
government should be obliged to accept and
action the recommendations of committee reports.  And finally, committees must have the authority to review legislation—and
the government should have to debate in the Assembly why it is not accepting
committee amendments.

 

These procedural
reforms would change the entire dynamic of the Legislature.  It would be a fundamental reform to
representative democracy in B.C. It would create checks and balances within the
system.  And to get there, the
Speaker must strike a special committee to recommend the reform of parliament.

 

Lastly is the
manner in which parties choose their candidates, whether at the riding or leadership level. 

 

Good people
require access to the opportunity to run and that requires both reasonable
spending and contribution levels, which the system imposes during elections,
but which don’t necessarily exist at the party level.  This needs to change.

 

But the other
horror of the system is the membership drive. It is shady and demeaning. The
parties must impose a membership cut-off at the time a vote is set.  I have seen people walk into a party headquarters
and deliver hundreds (or thousands) of membership applications and tens of
thousands of dollars – all in one lump drop. Corruption is inherent and the privilege
of a vote is meaningless.

 

The parties
won’t stop it because it’s money and future fundraising lists.  So the individuals who understand the
party’s values, who organize and contribute and who should be determining our
candidates, have to stand and watch an odious process they cannot control.

 

And the only way
to bring reason to the system is to threaten legislation and oversight by the
Chief Electoral Officer.

 

Power is a
component of leadership, and change ultimately depends on the responsiveness of
the leader.  The people won’t and
shouldn’t tolerate the kind of government we’ve been getting.  We need change. And I hope I can
support Premier Clark as she leads us into a democratic renewal of politics in
B.C. 

zzz

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Green poll puts Elizabeth May in lead to win in B.C. riding

Canada, Politics
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From the Vancouver Sun – April 26, 2011

by Larry Pynn

Elizabeth May has been saying all along she’s a legitimate contender in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Now, with less than a week until the federal election, the Green party leader has a poll to help back it up.

Oraclepoll
Research Ltd. found that 44.5 per cent of voters in the riding are
“most likely” to vote for May or are “leaning towards” supporting her.

That
compares with 37.8 per cent for Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn, 9.1
per cent for NDP candidate Edith Loring-Kuhanga, and 8.5 per cent for
Liberal candidate Renee Hetherington.

Commissioned by the
Green party and released Tuesday, the poll surveyed 389 voting age
residents April 18 and 19. The margin of error is 4.9 per cent, 19 times
out of 20.

Of those polled, 17.2 per cent were aged 18 to
34, 51.4 per cent aged 35 to 54, and 29.8 per cent aged 55 years or
older. The other 1.5 per cent refused to say.

While the
election outcome remains far from certain, the poll results confirm the
hunch of University of Victoria political scientist Dennis Pilon. “I
really think she’s got a chance,” he said.

Called out by
The Vancouver Sun, the Green party conceded Tuesday it was wrong by
stating in a news release that the poll showed 45 per cent of “decided
voters” supported May.

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Dix Announces BC NDP Shadow Cabinet

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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From TheTyee.ca – April 26, 2011

by Andrew MacLeod

British Columbia New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix released his
shadow cabinet this morning, ahead of the April 27 return to the
legislature.

Port Coquitlam MLA, Mike Farnworth, who placed second to
Dix in the leadership race, becomes the health critic, a position Dix
held before he stepped down to run for the top job.

Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan, who place third, goes back
to being the energy, mines and petroleum resources critic and picks up
house leader duties from Farnworth.

Former leader Carole James, whose resignation in December led to the leadership race, does not have a critic role, reportedly
because she did not want one. James has previously said she will stay
as an MLA and has not decided whether to run in the next election. She
needs to stay until at least May 17 to qualify for the pension plan available to MLAs.

Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall, who endorsed Dix’s
leadership bid, got a boost to advanced education, youth and labour
market development critic from being the deputy critic on the file. And
Mable Elmore, who represents Vancouver-Kensington, will be the critic
for multiculturalism, child care and early learning, the latter two
parts of which she’d previously covered as a deputy critic.

Other Dix supporters include Surrey-Green Timbers’ Sue
Hammell who will be both deputy house leader and deputy health critic.
Bruce Ralston from Surrey-Whalley will continue to cover finance and
public accounts and Harry Bains from Surrey-Newton keeps transportation
and infrastructure.

Most of the MLAs who were in the group of 13
that opposed James’ leadership of the NDP and forced her resignation
continue in the roles they previously held, with minor changes, none of
which would be described as a demotion.

Here’s the full list:

Adrian Dix: Leader

Bruce Ralston : Finance and Public Accounts critic

Mike Farnworth: Health critic

John Horgan: House Leader, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources critic

Sue Hammell: Deputy House Leader, Deputy Health critic

Maurine Karagianis: Whip

Raj Chouhan: Deputy Whip, Labour critic

Shane Simpson: Caucus Chair, Social Development and Housing critic

Kathy Corrigan: Deputy Caucus Chair, Public Safety and Solicitor General critic and Women’s critic

Doug Donaldson: Chair, Sustainable Economic Development Committee; Deputy Finance critic and Deputy Energy critic

Robin Austin: Chair, Social Policy Committee; Education critic

Scott Fraser: Aboriginal Relations critic

Michelle Mungall: Advanced Education, Youth and Labour Market Development critic

Lana Popham: Agriculture critic

Leonard Krog: Attorney General critic

Gary Coons: B.C. Ferries and Coastal Communities critic

Claire Trevena: Children and Family Development critic

Doug Routley: Citizens’ Services and Open Government critic

Harry Lali: Community and Rural Development critic

Nicholas Simons: Community Living critic, Deputy Social Development and Housing critic

Diane Thorne: Deputy Education critic

Rob Fleming: Environment critic

Michael Sather: Deputy Environment Critic – Fisheries

Norm Macdonald: Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations critic

Bill Routley: Deputy Forests Critic

Jenny Kwan: Jobs, Economic Development and Trade critic

Jagrup Brar: Small Business critic

Guy Gentner: Public Health and Sport critic

Mable Elmore: Multiculturalism, Child Care and Early Learning critic

Katrine Conroy: Seniors and Long Term Care critic

Spencer Chandra Herbert: Tourism, Culture and the Arts critic

Harry Bains: Transportation and Infrastructure critic

Dawn Black: Assistant Deputy Speaker (designate)

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The Youth Vote – Election Wildcard

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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Two phenomena could change the federal political landscape in BC – one would come from strategic voting where voters choose not to elect someone rather than supporting their favourite party. If this tactic is widespread it could deny Mr. Harper a majority, which in my view is an excellent thing to do.

There could be another phenomenon resulting in a tectonic shift of BC politics – the young may actually get out and vote.

How long and how often have we, ahem, older voters bemoaned the absence of more youthful voters?

I have often observed that youth will travel halfway across the continent to protest but won’t cross the street to vote.

It’s certainly true that my generation has not distinguished itself but if we’re to blame for doing things wrong surely the young have the responsibility to make things right. Most generations have failed to make the world peaceful and prosperous but that doesn’t absolve the next generation of its obligation, if only in self interest, to make things better.

Two ends of the policy spectrum should be of much interest young voters they flock to the polls; Education is one of them. University fees are just one of the areas of concern. Young people will soon have children of their own and will have an even tougher time than we did in managing daycare, controlling rising costs at all levels and ensuring that the education their children is to the standards they would wish. It’s an irony of the times that those who need the most help are the ones in their 20s and 30s who make the least. They face, to say the least, an uncertain financial outlook and, perhaps the worse difficulty of all – what are the jobs going to be and how can they best prepare themselves?

The Liberals and Tories have done little to make youth feel wanted while the much friendlier NDP seems, on the federal level at least, unable to win. Young people tend to be visionaries more than practical and this is the very reason they are so badly needed. Since recorded history youth have tended to be idealists, which makes it difficult to join parties where policy is driven by old (mostly) men who see life in more static terms, worried more by the problems of their own remaining days. It’s this old/young split that creates a sense of futility in the young, keeping them away from the polls where they could change things.

The years to come will be interesting and fraught with huge changes in the way we behave as a people and as a country, in terms of changing universal behaviour, and what the young can do as they pass through life and rise to its many challenges.

Young people must also wrestle with the truth – our method of governance is not what in fact happens. They become adults believing that Canada is a parliamentary democracy where MPs have some power, whereas power is almost entirely exercised in the Prime Minister’s office. As they slowly become aware that they have been misinformed they become cynical and disinterested in getting involved in a game where the “fix” is in right from the start.

However much they might wish it were not so, it is so and there is only one solution – youth must force the issue by getting involved.

There is a cause where the younger citizens can make a difference both on the ground and in the voting booth – the environment, in the broadest sense of that word. I speak of grossly intrusive highways, fish farms destroying our wild salmon, private power which BC Hydro must buy even though they have no use for it and which results in horrific and permanent damage to our rivers, bankrupting itself in the bargain.

Our young generations can start public protesting as comrades with a lot of older citizens and voting for a party that pledges to change things.

The wheel may be crooked but, alas, it’s the only game in town, meaning we all must work towards more involvement of people of every age group; but while we may all fight as hard as we can, the war cannot be won without the young.

Video of recent Youth “Vote Mob” at UBC:

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Minority Govt. & Strategic Voting to Save BC

Canada, Energy and Resources, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, WATER, Western Canada, , , ,
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Two related matters today.

First, Prime Minister Harper is making a big fuss about needing a majority government. So are the Central Canadian media. I ask, what’s the matter with a minority government?

Think what the Harper government did without a majority and ask yourself what’s so good about a majority 5 year dictatorship? Why don’t the media examine what is right about a minority government.

In fact there is one extremely good thing – the government is forced to consult with other leaders both on the budget and general legislation. On the budget, the Minister of Finance can’t walk into the Chamber and say “like it or lump it – after the usual fandango and ritual speeches we, the government, are going to cram it up your…surely I need go no further.” How is that bad?

It’s the same thing with legislation and policy – there must be consultation.

It’s said that a minority government must always kiss the backside of the opposition – that is palpable nonsense. In reality minority parties while able to vote down the government rarely do. They usually are out of serious money for campaigning and don’t want an election where the government can, as here, bleat that they couldn’t get their legislation through – legislation that would end the nation’s woes and bring happiness to all.

The media claims that all the House of Commons does is bicker. But surely to God that’s what they’re supposed to do. It’s a passionate place because there blood is spilled figuratively rather than literally.

In my opinion a minority government, while far from perfect, is the best of possible results – especially for British Columbia, which needs political clout.

Let’s look at what BC needs.

Of course we have the needs of the rest of the country – health, jobs, better social policy and so on – but every party wants this, with none of them likely any better than the other.

We have a province that has growing concerns about the environment and giveaways that are features of both Victoria and Ottawa.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) are in bed with the fish farmers as memoranda leaked to the Cohen Commission clearly show. The Tories clearly support foreign corporations slaughtering our salmon in the interests of shareholders in Norway.

The Harper government supports the debasing of our environment so that large companies can make power we don’t need, that BC Hydro cannot use but is committed by contract to take and lose money on – all to the profit once more of foreign shareholders. In fact the federal government has helped fund Plutonic Power, which is General Electric in drag.

The Harper government supports the Enbridge pipeline from the Tar Sands to Kitimat and also supports huge oil tankers taking this sludge down our coast – arguably the most treacherous coastline in the world.

What can we do about this? What can we do to ensure that if Harper forms another government we in BC will be able to rely upon a strongly built opposition to see that parliament hears our concerns?

The issue before us is a stark one: do we support the party of our usual choice and the toady they have as their candidate or do we vote strategically so as to ensure our province has clout in Ottawa?

Strategic voting means supporting the best opposition candidate and vote for him/her even though in better times you wouldn’t.

We British Columbians have three areas of concern which, if badly dealt with, will kill off our wild fisheries, bankrupt our public Hydro corporation and ensure that oil spills on land and sea will damage our province beyond repair.

The Conservative government would allow, indeed encourage these catastrophes. These environmental outrages are not the bleeding heart sort supported by flower children in days of yore – in fact they are at the very core of our way of life.

If we do not commit ourselves to fighting for the province, who will? I personally look at my nine grandchildren and my great granddaughter and conclude that this destruction can’t happen on my watch – at least not without me giving everything I have to the fight.

Let’s all join as British Columbians to send a message to Ottawa that will at least be heard in the House of Commons.

If we do that, we’re in with a chance.

If we don’t, thank God we won’t be still alive when future generations of British Columbians will look back at us with the scorn we so justly earned  

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Terrorists in Campbell River, BC? Harper on the Look-Out for Rally

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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From the Campbell River Mirror – April 21, 2011

by Paul Ruddan

Incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper is slated to be in Campbell River on Saturday.

Local members of the Conservative Party received
notices of the PM’s visit to the Quinsam Centre, but no official
announcement was made.

The party is expected to confirm his visit
Friday.Security will be tight and the PM’s handlers are requiring that
guests pre-register by noon Friday. They will also be required to
present photo identification at the door.

“They’ve got to make sure terrorists don’t get in,”
said George Finlay, president of the North Vancouver Island Conservative
Party. “I’m the president, and they made me go through the same
(security check) last week.”

Also attending will be North Island incumbent MP John
Duncan and Conservative candidates Troy DeSouza and John Koury, also
from Vancouver Island.

The event begins at 4:30 p.m. at the Quinsam Center,
located on the Cape Mudge Reserve, behind the Shell Station, off the
Inland Island Highway.

To pre-register call 250-914-3405 in Campbell River, 250-871-0770 in the Comox Valley and 250-902-0910 in Port Hardy.

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North Island candidates comment on oil tankers

Canada, Energy and Resources, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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From the Courier-Islander – April 20, 2011

For the upcoming May 2 federal election, Vancouver Island North candidates were asked:

Last
December, the House of Commons passed a motion calling for a ban on
crude-oil tanker traffic off BC’s north coast, but the motion was
non-binding and considered likely to be ignored. What’s your position
on allowing oil tanker traffic off the BC coast? What impact would such
a ban have on the Vancouver Island North riding?

NDP Candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard:

Our
coastal life is too important to our economy and our waters are too
rough to risk tanker traffic. The Exxon Valdez disaster and the BP
spill in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrate the devastation that results
from accidental spills. The sinking of the Queen of the North ferry
showed that even with navigational technology, human error can occur.

The
oil and gas companies are far more concerned about their profits than
the B.C. Coast. It is up to us to defend what is ours. A spill would
mean the end of the very basis of our livelihoods and deprive of us of
our most precious resource.

Eight in 10 British Columbians, the
vast majority of coastal First Nations, and the Canadian Parliament all
support a ban on oil tankers on BC’s Coast. Making it law will ensure
future generations do not bear the risk of a major oil disaster.

Conservative Candidate John Duncan:

Our
Conservative party’s number one priority remains the economy, which we
will balance with responsible environmental stewardship. Oil and gas
tankers go into and out of Vancouver every day. Oil and gas tankers
have more than 100 movements a year along the BC coast to service our
coastal industries and communities. Prince Rupert and Kitimat are
increasingly important ports for international trade and their
industrial infrastructure will increasingly resemble the Port of
Vancouver. The Conservative Government has no plans to re-open the 1988
Exclusion Zone on tankers travelling between Alaska and Washington
State on the B.C. Coast and we have no plans to re-open the current
moratorium on offshore oil and gas developments on the B.C. Coast.

Liberal Candidate Mike Holland:

I
believe we need a ban on oil tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast. A
moratorium was put in place by the Liberal government in 1972 but the
Harper Conservatives refuse to recognize the moratorium, or the
incredible risk to our coastal communities, tourism and fishery
industries that tanker traffic and an oil spill would pose. That’s why I
supported the efforts in the last Parliament by Vancouver-Quadra
Liberal MP Joyce Murray to formalize the moratorium on the shipping of
crude oil in the dangerous inland waters around Haida Gwaii and off
Northern Vancouver Island with Bill C-606, and if elected I will work
in the next parliament to ensure a formal ban is passed into law. As
the moratorium has been in place since 1972 the impact of a formal ban
on our riding would be negligible, but the impact of a spill would be
tragic and irreversible.

Green Party Candidate Sue Moen:

The
Green Party of Canada continues to call for a legislated ban on bulk
oil tankers along Canada’s entire Pacific Coast and supported the
Private member’s bill calling for this, as a significant step towards
protecting BC’s coast. The proposed pipelines that would feed that
traffic have been opposed by over 80 First Nations bands and thousands
of B.C. residents.

Greens propose more marine conservation areas,
saving more boreal forest as a carbon sink and returning resource
management to local communities.

These actions create
opportunities for employment including environmental protection,
reforestation, research, eco-system rehabilitation, and in
non-extractive eco-tourism, and many more. These are sustainable jobs. A
single catastrophic spill — a certainty in the wild waters off our
coast — would devastate all of those jobs.

I don’t want to live in a world where the clean-up of an oil spill is defined as good for the economy.

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DFO Crime Scene – Alexandra Morton Event

Canada, Politics, Western Canada, , ,
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I am a biologist and resident of a tiny coastal community on the coast of British Columbia.

When salmon farms arrived I believed the government promotion that itwould be good for my community.

But now that the industry has surrounded us with 27 huge Norwegian
salmon feedlots, there are only 8 people left, the First Nations oppose the
industry, our school is closed, we have the sea lice epidemics, mounds of waste
only bacteria can grow on, toxic algae blooms and zero jobs in the industry. We
learned at the Cohen Inquiry that the federal government has offered to sell
this Norwegian industry to us, the people of Canada. My town was based on wild
salmon through fishing, tourism and the arts. As the wild salmon went so we
went. We did not accept the low paying jobs as reward for allowing this
industry to destroy our coast.

Video from recent Alexandra Morton event in Vancouver – story continues below

Salmon feedlots break the natural laws unleashing bacteria,
viruses and sea lice. My lawyer, Greg McDade, questioned Dr. Laura Richards,
Director General of Science Pacific Region about the 2009 sockeye crash at the
Cohen Inquiry. We learned a briefing note sent to the Minister of Fisheries
stated that a virus is one of the leading suspected causes of the 2009 sockeye
collapse.  We also learned DFO
muzzled their own scientist who made this discovery, Dr. Kristi Miller. Salmon
Leukemia virus is a retro virus like HIV. DFO never told the public and left us
to blame fishermen. They also refused to test the farm salmon in an
effort to find out where this virus is coming from.

Salmon farming has harmed wild salmon everywhere they
operate (Ford and Myers, 2008). Canada has already destroyed one earth’s
greatest natural food supplies, the North Atlantic cod, by muzzling their
scientists. Fisheries and Ocean Canada blindly adhered to bad policy kicking the
cod and the east coast economy over the cliff. Immediately after, the Hibernia
oils wells went onto the Grand Banks. Canada traded food security for oil, the
future for short-term gain for the corporate world. No one in DFO was held
accountable and there is every indication that they are doing this again in BC.

I am unwilling to accept our fate as victim of another bad,
misguided policy favouring industry over our communities.   As soon as oil prices rise too
far the Norwegian salmon feedlot industry will not be able to afford shipping
ground up fish from Chile to feed their Atlantic salmon here in the Pacific.
They will walk away and we will be sitting like fools with viral epidemics and
piles of manure smothering a once productive seafloor.

All too often people feel helpless. Democracy is slipping
away under the crush of the global economy.We need to wake up right now and step into the process of
how we form governments.Members
of Parliament are our agents, nothing more. Eighty-five percent of British Columbians consider
wild salmon an icon; they bring in over $2 billion a year in wilderness tourism
and fishing, they are an essential bloodstream carrying nutrients to our
forests, they are food security. We want them and our political agents have no
business hiding the truth about them from us.  It is time to elect people who will stand by us and defend
our rights and resources.

For these reasons I left home April 13th to go door-to-door
to as many federal candidate campaign offices as possible to get them on record:  Do you support wild salmon, would you
protect them by removing salmon feedlots from BC waters, would they protect the
aquaculture workers by supporting land-based aquaculture farming species that
are more sustainable, lower on the food chain than salmon?

I have been down Vancouver Island to Nanaimo, across the
ridings of Vancouver, through Chilliwack to Kamloops, Enderby, Salmon Arm,
Mission. I will be continuing through the lower mainland and southern Vancouver
Island.  It has been a fascinating
exploration. I am a biologist with very little political experience and I am on
a steep learning curve.

Here is what I have found out:

The Greens have
some candidates that are very impressive such as, Adriane Carr (Vancouver
Central) and Elizabeth May (Saanich – Gulf Islands). Sue Moen, (Vancouver
Island North) really tells it like she sees it, but is not electable.  Some Greens should get out of the way
as they are not serious about winning. Both Carr and May strongly support
wild salmon.They would transition
workers in the industry to land-based aquaculture. I think Carr and May
would go a long way to bring balance to any government. 

The Liberals
seemed uncertain of their position, with many candidates remaining silent, but
on April 18 Micheal Ignatieff said, “if fish farms are harming wild salmon
we’ve got to stop it, put it on land or stop it all together.” This is a much
stronger statement than the one made by Mike Holland (Vancouver Island-North)
who said, “We need to get the
science done to understand just what the relationship and impact is, and we
need to be prepared to go where the science takes us. If that takes us to
closed-containment only I support that, but I want the science first. I’m not
prepared to mandate a timeline at this stage.”I think Liberal Renee Heatherington (Saanich-Gulf
Islands)  may be pushing her party
to establish a policy on this.

The Conservatives
avoided me, until April 18 when MP Cathy MacLeod accepted our request to meet
in Kamloops.I was really looking
forward to hearing the Conservative position, but as we sat down she said she
could only listen and not give a position. Senator Nancy Greene joined us.I have met Nancy before and know she is
a strong wild salmon supporter.MacLeod’s attitude shifted during the meeting. I think she wanted to see
me as a nut, but as I outlined how the federal government has been hiding a
virus in the sockeye, I saw a change in her and she did say the Conservatives
are awaiting the Cohen decision. This is really not good enough.I have seen three major government
reviews on salmon farming entirely ignored by the provincial and federal
governments. The Cohen Inquiry is not a fish farm review, even if it finds
impact on the sockeye it is not mandated to do a thorough salmon farm
investigation.There is more than
enough evidence of harm to invoke the Precautionary Principle, which Canada
says it supports.

Conservative candidate John Duncan (Vancouver Island-North) told constituents in
Port McNeill that he supports continued salmon farming.At an All-Candidates meeting in Courtenay, Duncan’s seat was
empty – people call him “Mr. Invisible.”
Many of the Conservative offices are
very hard to find, and many people have told me the Conservatives do not attend the
All-Candidate meetings. Paul Forseth’s
(Burnaby–New Westminster) people didn’t want us to take pictures of their
office, saying it was private property. Colin Mayes’ campaign office address is
not on the internet – there is no website. His riding includes the Adams River,
one of earth’s biggest wild salmon runs. The people of Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon
are not pleased that Conservative MP Chuck Strahl just handed the candidacy to
his son Mark. The Conservatives get a thumbs down from me.

The NDP offices
are full of volunteers, people heading out the door with signs, tables of
coffee and snacks as no one has time to go home. Ronna-Rae Leonard (Vancouver
Island-North) is in full support of the people who make a living with wild
salmon, such as the wilderness tourism industry. But she says she is also
concerned with the people directly employed by the salmon farms. Thus she
supports building the infrastructure for a permanent land-based aquaculture
industry. Zeni Maartman (Nanaimo-Alberni) is a dynamo full of passion, energy
and deep commitment to both wild salmon and her riding.  Don Davies, Vancouver-Kingsway met with
us and is a man of action, compassion and understanding, in strong support of
wild salmon.  Fin Donnelly (New
Westminster-Coquitlam-Port Moody) joined me on the Paddle for Wild salmon
last fall, and is a hero to the wild salmon people province-wide. He tabled a
private member’s bill calling for removal of salmon farms onto land to protect
wild salmon and preserve jobs. Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) has
been involved with protecting wild salmon for a longtime.Denise Savoie (Victoria), Nathan Cullen
(Skeena-Bulkley Valley), and Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan) have also supported wild salmon very
strongly through their careers. Cullen helped protect the North Coast from the
expansion of salmon feedlots into the mouth of the Skeena River. I am hoping the
NDP will become stronger in their platform to remove salmon farms from BC
waters.

Please follow what the politicians are saying at
VoteSalmon.ca

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Alexandra Morton on Candidates’ Salmon Positions + New Video

Canada, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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I am a biologist and resident of a tiny coastal community on

the coast of British Columbia.When salmon farms arrived I believed the government promotion that it
would be good for my community.But now that the industry has surrounded us with 27 huge Norwegian
salmon feedlots, there are only 8 people left, the First Nations oppose the
industry, our school is closed, we have the sea lice epidemics, mounds of waste
only bacteria can grow on, toxic algae blooms and zero jobs in the industry. We
learned at the Cohen Inquiry that the federal government has offered to sell
this Norwegian industry to us, the people of Canada. My town was based on wild
salmon through fishing, tourism and the arts. As the wild salmon went so we
went. We did not accept the low paying jobs as reward for allowing this
industry to destroy our coast.

Video from recent Alexandra Morton event in Vancouver – story continues below

Salmon feedlots break the natural laws unleashing bacteria,
viruses and sea lice. My lawyer, Greg McDade, questioned Dr. Laura Richards,
Director General of Science Pacific Region about the 2009 sockeye crash at the
Cohen Inquiry. We learned a briefing note sent to the Minister of Fisheries
stated that a virus is one of the leading suspected causes of the 2009 sockeye
collapse.  We also learned DFO
muzzled their own scientist who made this discovery, Dr. Kristi Miller. Salmon
Leukemia virus is a retro virus like HIV. DFO never told the public and left us
to blame fishermen. They also refused to test the farm salmon in an
effort to find out where this virus is coming from.

Salmon farming has harmed wild salmon everywhere they
operate (Ford and Myers, 2008). Canada has already destroyed one earth’s
greatest natural food supplies, the North Atlantic cod, by muzzling their
scientists. Fisheries and Ocean Canada blindly adhered to bad policy kicking the
cod and the east coast economy over the cliff. Immediately after, the Hibernia
oils wells went onto the Grand Banks. Canada traded food security for oil, the
future for short-term gain for the corporate world. No one in DFO was held
accountable and there is every indication that they are doing this again in BC.

I am unwilling to accept our fate as victim of another bad,
misguided policy favouring industry over our communities.   As soon as oil prices rise too
far the Norwegian salmon feedlot industry will not be able to afford shipping
ground up fish from Chile to feed their Atlantic salmon here in the Pacific.
They will walk away and we will be sitting like fools with viral epidemics and
piles of manure smothering a once productive seafloor.

All too often people feel helpless. Democracy is slipping
away under the crush of the global economy.We need to wake up right now and step into the process of
how we form governments.Members
of Parliament are our agents, nothing more. Eighty-five percent of British Columbians consider
wild salmon an icon; they bring in over $2 billion a year in wilderness tourism
and fishing, they are an essential bloodstream carrying nutrients to our
forests, they are food security. We want them and our political agents have no
business hiding the truth about them from us.  It is time to elect people who will stand by us and defend
our rights and resources.

For these reasons I left home April 13th to go door-to-door
to as many federal candidate campaign offices as possible to get them on record:  Do you support wild salmon, would you
protect them by removing salmon feedlots from BC waters, would they protect the
aquaculture workers by supporting land-based aquaculture farming species that
are more sustainable, lower on the food chain than salmon?

I have been down Vancouver Island to Nanaimo, across the
ridings of Vancouver, through Chilliwack to Kamloops, Enderby, Salmon Arm,
Mission. I will be continuing through the lower mainland and southern Vancouver
Island.  It has been a fascinating
exploration. I am a biologist with very little political experience and I am on
a steep learning curve.

Here is what I have found out:

The Greens have
some candidates that are very impressive such as, Adriane Carr (Vancouver
Central) and Elizabeth May (Saanich – Gulf Islands). Sue Moen, (Vancouver
Island North) really tells it like she sees it, but is not electable.  Some Greens should get out of the way
as they are not serious about winning. Both Carr and May strongly support
wild salmon.They would transition
workers in the industry to land-based aquaculture. I think Carr and May
would go a long way to bring balance to any government. 

The Liberals
seemed uncertain of their position, with many candidates remaining silent, but
on April 18 Micheal Ignatieff said, “if fish farms are harming wild salmon
we’ve got to stop it, put it on land or stop it all together.” This is a much
stronger statement than the one made by Mike Holland (Vancouver Island-North)
who said, “We need to get the
science done to understand just what the relationship and impact is, and we
need to be prepared to go where the science takes us. If that takes us to
closed-containment only I support that, but I want the science first. I’m not
prepared to mandate a timeline at this stage.”I think Liberal Renee Heatherington (Saanich-Gulf
Islands)  may be pushing her party
to establish a policy on this.

The Conservatives
avoided me, until April 18 when MP Cathy MacLeod accepted our request to meet
in Kamloops.I was really looking
forward to hearing the Conservative position, but as we sat down she said she
could only listen and not give a position. Senator Nancy Greene joined us.I have met Nancy before and know she is
a strong wild salmon supporter.MacLeod’s attitude shifted during the meeting. I think she wanted to see
me as a nut, but as I outlined how the federal government has been hiding a
virus in the sockeye, I saw a change in her and she did say the Conservatives
are awaiting the Cohen decision. This is really not good enough.I have seen three major government
reviews on salmon farming entirely ignored by the provincial and federal
governments. The Cohen Inquiry is not a fish farm review, even if it finds
impact on the sockeye it is not mandated to do a thorough salmon farm
investigation.There is more than
enough evidence of harm to invoke the Precautionary Principle, which Canada
says it supports.

Conservative candidate John Duncan (Vancouver Island-North) told constituents in
Port McNeill that he supports continued salmon farming.At an All-Candidates meeting in Courtenay, Duncan’s seat was
empty – people call him “Mr. Invisible.”
Many of the Conservative offices are
very hard to find, and many people have told me the Conservatives do not attend the
All-Candidate meetings. Paul Forseth’s
(Burnaby–New Westminster) people didn’t want us to take pictures of their
office, saying it was private property. Colin Mayes’ campaign office address is
not on the internet – there is no website. His riding includes the Adams River,
one of earth’s biggest wild salmon runs. The people of Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon
are not pleased that Conservative MP Chuck Strahl just handed the candidacy to
his son Mark. The Conservatives get a thumbs down from me.

The NDP offices
are full of volunteers, people heading out the door with signs, tables of
coffee and snacks as no one has time to go home. Ronna-Rae Leonard (Vancouver
Island-North) is in full support of the people who make a living with wild
salmon, such as the wilderness tourism industry. But she says she is also
concerned with the people directly employed by the salmon farms. Thus she
supports building the infrastructure for a permanent land-based aquaculture
industry. Zeni Maartman (Nanaimo-Alberni) is a dynamo full of passion, energy
and deep commitment to both wild salmon and her riding.  Don Davies, Vancouver-Kingsway met with
us and is a man of action, compassion and understanding, in strong support of
wild salmon.  Fin Donnelly (New
Westminster-Coquitlam-Port Moody) joined me on the Paddle for Wild salmon
last fall, and is a hero to the wild salmon people province-wide. He tabled a
private member’s bill calling for removal of salmon farms onto land to protect
wild salmon and preserve jobs. Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) has
been involved with protecting wild salmon for a longtime.Denise Savoie (Victoria), Nathan Cullen
(Skeena-Bulkley Valley), and Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan) have also supported wild salmon very
strongly through their careers. Cullen helped protect the North Coast from the
expansion of salmon feedlots into the mouth of the Skeena River. I am hoping the
NDP will become stronger in their platform to remove salmon farms from BC
waters.

Please follow what the politicians are saying at
VoteSalmon.ca

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Excellent letter in Courier-Islander: Province has ‘cut the power’ to BC Hydro

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada,
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From the Campbell River Courier-Islander – April 20, 2011

by Marv Everett

Re: BC Energy & Mines Minister Rich Coleman story – “This One Has To Be Done” published in the April 15 edition of the Campbell River Courier-Islander.

Now there’s a profundity! Merely a month on the job and Hon. Rich Coleman is qualified to singlehandedly determine the engineering, safety, and financial merits of BC Hydro projects. Does he think that Hydro would be proposing the project if it didn’t need to be done? Some sort of a “make work” project perhaps? In your article Mr. Coleman goes on to say “…But we also need to minimize costs and take care about the burden we’re placing on families…you also have to figure out how you can bring your costs in and cash-flow it through so that your rates will be kept down…” To ensure that Mr. Coleman’s prerequisites can be met, he has struck a panel of “senior officials” to examine Hydro’s financial performance, its operating and capital requirements, the reliability of its forecasting systems, administrative expenses, procurement processes, cost containment strategies, and opportunities for savings.

As a retired BC Hydro manager with 36 years service I feel both compelled and qualified to comment. The underlying implication of Mr. Coleman’s comments and actions is that BC Hydro is inept and that somehow by the end of June his panel of “senior officials” is going to identify the various errors of Hydro’s ways and get them on track towards providing low cost, reliable, clean hydroelectric energy for the citizens and industry of British Columbia.

Whoa!! Reality check!! The facts of the matter are that BC Hydro through the watchful eye of the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) and the incredible foresight of the W.A.C. Bennett government has been providing the lowest cost, reliable, green, 100% renewable electrical energy in North America to the citizens and industry of B.C for the past 50 years. And, just as importantly, they would still be doing so if the provincial government (yes, the same Liberal government that Mr. Coleman is and has been a Minister for) had not decided to use (or more accurately abuse) BC Hydro as an enormous “cash cow” and steal hundreds of millions of dollars from them per year in “dividend payments” to the “shareholder” (the government on behalf of British Columbians). The fact is that the government saw Hydro’s large cash flows and capital and operational program funds as huge cash reserves that they could “better use” to fund other government programs for which funding would otherwise have to be reduced or taxes would otherwise have to be increased. Our “diligent” premier and his cabinet simply didn’t care that their “rob Peter to pay Paul” actions would require Hydro to cut and/or seriously curtail their requisite system operations and capital programs.

In fact, to add insult to injury, the Liberal government under Premier Campbell forced BC Hydro to take on billions of dollars in additional debt in the form of long term (30 — 40 year) “use or pay” contracts with private run-of-river and wind power developers. Furthermore, the contracted energy costs are two to three times higher than current electrical energy value.

So, back to Mr. Coleman’s quandary. What will his panel of experts determine? What can we do to ensure that the citizens and industry of British Columbia are getting the best bang for their energy dollar? How can we be sure that Hydro and its villainous team of engineers and technicians isn’t out to screw us? Well, I would like to humbly suggest the following solutions:

Get your grubby government hands out of BC Hydro’s pockets. For the past 50 years the citizens and industry of British Columbia have enjoyed “real” dividends from BC Hydro in the form of the lowest cost, clean, reliable electrical energy in North America (possibly the world). This didn’t happen by accident and it certainly isn’t indicative of a poorly run energy corporation.

Let BC Hydro work to its mandate and let BCUC do its job of overseeing Hydro’s operations.

Make the government the “fall guy” rather than BC Hydro and explain why Hydro is in the mess it’s in. The government created the mess so they should at least have the intestinal fortitude and integrity to admit it.

Unfortunately we are all going to have to pay to get ourselves out of this mess but at least we should know the real cause so that future generations don’t repeat this sham.

M.J. (Marv) Everett, Retired,

Campbell River

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