We at Save Our Rivers Society are girding up our loins for the continued battle to save our rivers from the capitalist predation being undertaken with all the help Campbell & Co can give.
I’ve been asked given the Liberals won the last election giving them four more years to do as they wish, we don’t just fold our tent and walk away? The answer is that we can’t – and neither can you! We will fight every inch of the way to fight every private power exercise that comes along.
This will not be easy. I don’t believe that Campbell will stay his term. With the Winter Olympics behind him I believe he’ll resign. If I’m right, since Campbell won’t need the Liberal Party any more it won’t bother him if they hit the ditch in 2013.
Is that being fair? Campbell hasn’t given any inkling that he wants to leave politics has he?
I think he has in several ways.
He clearly doesn’t care that with his policies, BC Hydro will be ruined before 2013 because he won’t be where it matters. He clearly doesn’t care about our environment because he won’t be around when his party is called to account.
He doesn’t give a damn about BC getting screwed by an energy policy that brings no new power to speak of to BC but makes us into a perpetual goblet of energy to be drunk by Americans for two reasons – he never has had concerns about BC and – here’s pure speculation – he expects to become rich out of energy as former Alberta premier Ralph Klein has become.
In a way, this makes the task of fighting the rivers issue more difficult. After all, if Campbell doesn’t give a damn about it why would anyone else in the Liberal Party care?
The answer is that the candidates for his position will know that they face a serious problem in 2013 and will want to forge their own paths. Rita Johnson and Kim Campbell know what it’s like to take over a party that’s hated by the voters.
But this isn’t really relevant to our fight because we must stop these projects without concern for political events. We must oppose with every fiber in our body. We have to prepare, with many participants, to blockade projects and defy the law taking the consequences that follow. This will require solidarity of all of us who are in the fight.
I have found in the issues in which I’ve been involved you never know you’ve won until you’ve won. Up until that moment you nearly always feel you’re losing.
We have a moral obligation to all who come after us to fight Campbell and his toadies every inch of the way. As the great Scottish minstrel, Sir Harry Lauder used to sing – “Keep right on to the end of the road, Keep right on to the end …”
Very good article Rafe.
I think there are a lot of people who feel the same way. If civil disobedience helps then lets do it.
What is needed is a little more organization of places to hit. I don’t have the time to organize but as you have seen I post almost everything you send me at http://howbadtherecord.blogspot.com. I would certainly do this for this cause.
Like you, I am a avid sport fisherman and am appalled at what Campbell is doing to our province. And I’m positive I’m not alone.
Being a pensioner on limited income I would surely be willing to hook up my trailer and get to the closer protests.
Well Gary E, I would be happy to join you and I can be reached at mwnisbet@yahoo.ca. I also think that this cause is very much part of the greater environmental fight which has been waged so far by individual organizations. What we need is to bring these groups together, share resources and present a co-ordinated front. Unless we can hang together I fear we will all hang separately – as a wise man once said.
Gordon Campbell is solely responsible for the terrible shape of the province of BC. Why is he not in prison over the sellout of the BC rail? Who gave him the permission to do so? He also had no right to sell our rivers? Who gave him the right to give himself a 53% wage hike and the rest of the officials did very well also. The rivers belong to the citizens of BC along with the BCR, and the money he had stolen to give the wage hikes, that is the peoples money. Nothing is done in this province that doesn’t give him personal gain. I believe Campbell is laying out the ground work for the rest of the country to follow. Harper is licking his lips in anticipation of the funds to benefit the east.
I was told about the Western Block Party. I like their new ideas. The tax dollars in the west would remain in the west. Better yet, the people would have the power to rid ourselves of corrupt premiers like Campbell. And as far as the west separating from the east. I am an older citizen and have seen the east as their own country. The east got all the benefits and the west got crumbs. Chretienne had said he didn’t like the people in the west because they were different. And that has been the outcome, the east has always dictated the rules for the west, for as long as I can remember. Gordon Campbell is despicable for making BC a third world province. BC residents will have to brace themselves, for, on top of the HST, there will be more taxes to pay for the incredible mess he has made of the Olympics. A criminal being a premier of a province, blows me away.