Tag Archives: Politics

Rafe Mair

Politics and the Environment in BC

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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The chickens are coming home to roost for Premier Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell. The question is how do we best handle the political consequences.

I spent a lot of time with Carole James during the election a year ago last May and came to like her and admire her in spite of the fact she, or rather the NDP, ran a terrible campaign. I told her partway through the campaign that it looked to me as if someone had a death wish for her.

The result wasn’t really her second loss, although it was that if one proceeds simply numerically. It’s not fair to pin the previous loss on Ms. James because she did bring the party back from the grave’s edge. The election in 2013 is hers to win or lose.

I’ve been hard on Ms. James for her present tactics of staying off the battlefield and mingling with the crowd. In fairness, that may have as much to do with my own combativeness as any other factor. I was weaned in the politics of hand-to-hand combat with lots of blood being spilt. Maybe we have to wait and see whether Ms. James and her advisers are right. In fact, she may be right – for a special reason I’ll talk about it a moment.

No one can be something they’re not. When I went into radio in 1981, the great Jack Webster had two bits of advice: if you’re interviewing your mother, have a piece of paper with Mom written on, for you’ll be amazed at whose name you can forget under pressure; and be yourself, don’t try to ape any other broadcasters including me.

Ms. James simply would not be herself if she were to enter pitched battles and try to win by noise and figurative bloodshed what you should win by reason.

Here’s the special reason Ms. James may be on the right track. For the first time I can remember, the “environment” is a big issue – indeed it’s huge. And there isn’t a nook or a cranny where this government and especially this leader are not in high odour on this issue.

In the past, governments have always been able to play off one group against another but this isn’t going to be so easy in 2013. I’ll guarantee that there will be much more unity of action by environmentalists. It will scarcely be any kind of coalition because such are simply not possible. By their very nature, many groups are concentrated on one issue or one geographical area or both. There are conflicts for available money. All have different histories. This does not mean that they cannot get together for a political purpose.

What will become, to the surprise of many no doubt, a serious matter for Campbell is the coming together for the purposes of defeating him – groups that have been and perhaps still are on separate issues in separate areas. To save this province from the wanton destruction by this government is a common goal and will bring, I believe, a much closer-knit political response.

If I’m right about the high profile of the environment and if there can be a common cause of defeating Campbell, Carole James must convince British Columbians of two things: that she cares for the environment, and that as premier she will do something about it; and she must convince people that she won’t make a balls-up of the economy.

These two factors support the notion that the NDP leader should travel the province convincing people that she will reverse the environmental policies of the Campbell gang and that she will be a safe pair of hands to run the province.

My own philosophy in the 2009 election as repeated to audiences around the country was pragmatic – I simply said that while I didn’t believe they will, if the NDP screw up the economy a later government can fix it; what a later government cannot do is bring back the destroyed rivers, the ruined salmon runs, and BC Hydro. They can be no more restored into their old form than scrambled eggs can ever go back into their shells.

But Carole James cannot win on that sort of fatalism – she must convince the public that the NDP can be trusted to do a better job than the Liberals can which is a pretty low bar indeed as I’m sure you will agree. She must convince groups around the province that she is capable and those groups must include all sections of society.

To follow such a course will take guts especially if she will be up against Carole Taylor or Dianne Watts. Of course Ms. Taylor brings her own baggage: she didn’t resign in protest as she should have and is thus responsible for much of the destructive policy of this government, and so far as I know hasn’t issued forth a peep about the Energy Policy and Fish Farms policy of the government, and, frankly, I would be surprised if knows anything about these issues. Having heard nothing to the contrary I assume she supports this government’s insane and destructive Gateway project and Deltaport enhancement.

Diane Watts is a very popular mayor of Surrey but that’s a hell of a long way from the premier’s chair in Victoria. In fact I would be surprised if Ms. Watts changed her declared position that she’s not interested.

I remain principally concerned about the environment and especially rivers and fish. I haven’t cast a fly line since 2005 so it’s not my hobby I’m fighting for but the very soul of this province, our trademark: our rivers and our salmon.

In saying that I respect and will always support other environmentalists who have their own important priorities. As John Donne said over 300 years ago and is as true today as then, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”. When you ponder the truth of that powerful message it becomes clear that we must all see the bigger picture. I know that pipelines destroy fish and rivers, as tanker accidents do. We know that this government’s insane highway development destroys valuable farmland and habitat and that Burns Bog is sacred as are the Pink salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago. As we know that the blot of destruction spreads everywhere, all of us must fight that destruction where we’re best able to do so and help others wherever they may be.

And that’s the key to success – fight our damndest in areas where we have prioritized and help others do the same as we gather together in the political arena to support those who share our values, which are no more than to save and protect our province for the sake of those who come after us.

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The BC Rail Scandal And The New Lawlessness

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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Article by Robin Mathews at ViveleCanada.ca. “The New Lawlessness (subscribed to, I allege, by Gordon Campbell, Stephen Harper, and Ed Stelmach in Canada) is nothing more than a seamless alliance between governments and huge private corporations to elude law – where corporate interests are pursuing unregulated pollution, cheapest exploitation of resources, get-rich-quick manufacture of fraudulent securities, dubious ownership transfers, sales of non-existent commodities – or, in fact, any action or design that previously would be (and now should be) criminal in private corporate behaviour intended to enrich Corporation ‘principals’ at the expense of the public.” Read article

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Introducing Our New Cartoonist: Gerry Hummel

Canada, Politics, Western Canada,
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In the serious business of documenting environmental calamities, exposing politicians’ dirty tricks, and searching for solutions to the grave challenges of our time, the cartoon is truly an indispensable art – providing both incisive perspective to the issues we discuss, and much-needed comic relief. Let’s face it: any self-respecting publication needs good cartoons. And so it is our distinct pleasure to introduce The Common Sense Canadian‘s “Cartoonist in Residence,” Gerry Hummel.

Gerry immigrated with his family to Canada as a child in 1953 and has lived most of his life in Kitimat, BC. While working at the local paper mill and raising two children as a single-dad, he began working as a self-taught editorial cartoonist for the town paper in 1993. Several years later, he and the paper got sued by a local politician for being too honest – something Gerry shares in common with certain other people at TheCanadian.org. After that, the paper restricted his artistic freedom to such an extent that he was unable to continue working with them. Naturally, we think he will fit right in here.

In recent years, Gerry has continued drawing political cartoons and caricatures for specific causes, always taking the side of the little guy. He recently joined the ranks of the have-nots himself, a casualty of our recent economic recession, forced into early retirement due to industry cutbacks…which now means he can sit at home and listen to rock ‘n roll.

To commemorate this announcement, we proudly present Gerry’s first cartoon for TheCanadian.org, featuring our co-founder Rafe Mair and his close friend Gordon Campbell – a design you will soon be able to wear, as it graces our forthcoming, highly exclusive Common Sense Canadian T-shirts.

Welcome Gerry Hummel!

Click here to view full size.

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Sustainability and public policy

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada, ,
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We the people must do more than oppose environmental nightmares encouraged and sometimes committed by government.

Most, if not all, of the projects The Common Sense Canadian has been involved in, stack the deck from the outset. None could better make my point than Fish Lake in the Chilcotin area which got past the BC Environmental Assessment process like a hot knife through butter.
A federal review panel has has found major faults with the project – in terms of impacts on the environment and First Nations who depend upon it – but the final decision will be made by the Prime Minister.

Fish Lake is a good place to start for today’s rant but it could have started at any number of other projects.

Before we even consider environmental catastrophes like Fish Lake we must, as a society, make up our minds on this fundamental question: when decisions are made, do jobs and taxes trump the environment? If that’s so, we should cast off our cloak of hypocrisy and say so, leaving the Ministry of Environment the sole role of determining what rules will govern HOW, not IF the project is to proceed.

As anyone who has attended these public hearings can tell you,
one is only entitled to deal with the “how” not the “if” – unless you’re the company, in which case you are permitted to present for the meeting and for the media glowing descriptions of the benefits of the project with no risk of contradiction.
The companies invariably hold the meetings in out of the way places in halls that would scarcely handle a Sunday School meeting.

All companies committing environmental catastrophes tell us about the employment they will create. In all cases – you can depend on this – the figures are, to put it kindly, fudged. An excellent example comes out of private power producers who talk about the employment prospects from their dams – oops! I mean weirs – where in fact the only employment is for short term construction,
most of the jobs being low-paying and going to people from outside the project area.
After the dam – oops again, I mean weir – the computerized plant has one or two jobs only.

The tax issue is interesting, for when Premier Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell was asked what was in it for BC with private power projects, he named off HST, corporate income taxes, municipal taxes, and income taxes on employees.
These same benefits would come from building a red light district.

We, the public, must continue to demand proper hearings on environmental issues as a matter of right.
But there is a much larger issue which we’ve all been avoiding: how long can we continue as a society which practices uncontrolled consumption?

For several years I chaired meetings for Metro Vancouver on sustainability issues. These were not hearings in the true sense and weren’t billed as such. They were opportunities to discuss the feasibility of a project or a policy, the object being that the panel of experts and the audience would be able to detail the problems to be overcome for the benefit of the politicians and staff. This was fair enough
because municipalities do provide citizens opportunities to question whether or not to proceed with a project, as any developer can attest!
I only raise this to tell you that at many of the meetings, as I introduced the panel and the subject, I would ask “where does this all end? Do we just continue to grow and grow assuming that there will always be another field to plow up for houses?” The question was never answered.

This is the decision we must make as citizens – and Fish Lake, private power projects, fish farms, logging, and oil pipelines/tankers all in issue now, bring this question into focus.

Rex Weyler, a co-founder of Greenpeace, made this point a few weeks ago at a public meeting. He simply, but provocatively, asked whether or not we can simply go on consuming and expect to have the goods we consume and still retain our environment? And that’s what Fish Lake and other projects I’ve mentioned are all about. For if our philosophy is that failure to “progress” means we must, like a Ponzi* scheme, move on to the next river, the next valley,
the next species still left in the ocean, we will suffer the fate of all Ponzi schemes – we’ll implode.

We don’t have to rip our environment apart in order
to have a prosperous society, as many world societies – Holland, Belgium and Switzerland come to mind – demonstrate. We are a resource-based economy because we can be not because we must. Fish Lake, private power companies, logging companies, fish farms and piplelines/tankers teach us that the resources we can now exploit
are no longer far away, thus safely out of mind – but still just around the corner.

Unfortunately, 200 years or so of ever-increasing exploitation of resources have created a society that doesn’t want to change. It’s like the fishermen in Newfoundland when their fishery was closed – they demanded the right to do what past generations had always done even though there were no fish left.
Our society wants to fish where there are no fish left, just as we demand the right to mine no matter where the ore is, or the environmental cost of so doing;
we want to log because that’s what we’ve always done; we want to destroy farmland for new neighborhoods and shopping centres just as always has happened; we want the right to fish and destroy habitat at the same time and we want to risk serious and permanent damage where pipelines and tankers go.

The case is irrefutable – we cannot continue this way.

Instead of saying “let’s find new ways to live and earn the money to do so; let’s really learn how to conserve; let’s stop our imbedded habit of built-in obsolescence so that we can use products longer”, we are in denial.
Instead of meeting a very obvious problem head-on and looking for solutions we will carry on until the last fish is killed.

Fish Lake is a message, a symbol that we do have to stop somewhere, re-group and look for ways to re-cast our society so we can live well without destroying our precious environment.

* A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.

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G8/G20: A Post-Mortem

Canada, Politics, Western Canada
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With the G8 and G20 Summits over, one doesn’t have to look far for examples of anger and frustration at what did and didn’t happen.

There are many important questions being posed now that world leaders have left Toronto and the streets have been swept clear of broken glass and trash. From all NGOs being excluded from the media centre (the one with the infamous fake lake), and the violence on Queen Street in Canada’s largest city, to the reluctance to discuss important topics like climate change – the G8/G20’s legitimacy as effective bodies for global affairs has been called into question.

The concept of an overly expensive summit, which has long been a popular talking point for federal opposition parties, has become a hot topic for taxpayers and activists alike. The billion dollar price tag becomes even more of a black mark on Harper’s government and the entire G20 body when we discover that past summits’ security costs have been significantly less.

Toronto Mayor David Miller is demanding to know why negotiations were held in such a large city centre, while the “big-city mayors’ caucus” is challenging Ottawa to pay up and compensate the businesses affected by protests and civil disobedience.

Public opinion may heat up one more level with concerns of what The Guardian journalist John Hilary called “skulduggery” in Toronto last weekend. International media filmed police cruisers going up in smoke while Toronto Police have since been accused of playing a public relations game. Cruisers were allegedly driven into crowds, and left to be lit on fire while TV cameras around the world captured footage of the proclaimed anarchists’ handiwork.

All of these popular media headlines did little to explain real problems that have developed within the ranks of civil society. Furthermore, they entirely neglected to share with Canadians what actually happened at the summit. Only now have we begun to hear fragments of what happened with regards to the controversial bank tax, climate change, and national deficits.

Most problematic is the fact that people have lost faith in the Canadian government, corporations, law enforcement, and other relevant institutions. This G8 and G20 illuminated the holes in Canadian accountability, security costs being only the tip of the iceberg compared with broader issues.

Ideas on how to effectively deal with the big challenges of our time seem scarce. Perhaps this is the reason why 10,000 people felt they needed to flood the streets of Toronto to yell out their frustrations to what seemed like deaf ears within the summit.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on a meeting for world powers, while small nations were excluded from discussions on how to handle the global economy. The decisions made at the G8 and G20 will significantly affect the nations that didn’t have a voice at the negotiating table. The G20 is essentially a special club, that exists so countries like Canada and the USA can avoid the far less expensive and far more egalitarian United Nations – which gives a voice to small countries while allowing effective debate and discussion.

As Toronto returns to normalcy, my view of the G8 and G20 Summits has shifted dramatically. If the real problems of the world are ever to be solved, a more cohesive and effective method of dialogue and debate must be used. Now more than ever it seems necessary to try and unite advocates on the variety of causes people are currently campaigning for. The United Nations, an able body built on unity and cooperation, is there for us. Let’s use it.

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An HST quiz for those who follow broken promises like a real whiz

Canada, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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Article by Vaughn Palmer in the Vancouver Sun.

“4. Campbell then ordered finance ministry officials to ‘go out and find
out how we’re going to meet the budget target.’ Next day they:

a) Cancelled plans to add a $600-million roof to BC Place.

b) Sought to borrow another $1 billion at the very attractive interest rates available to government.

c) Fired off a fast e-mail to Ottawa, asking what was the standing offer for transition funding on the HST.”

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