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John Horgan: Your Pro-LNG Points Don’t Wash

Dec 22nd, 2014 by

Cartoon by Ingrid Rice.

Cartoon by Ingrid Rice.

Betting on mirage jobs, NDP leader downplays huge risks to citizens and nature.

Dear B.C. New Democrat leader John Horgan,

The reader response to my last article criticizing your support of the Liberal government’s LNG policy was substantial, and to be blunt, you didn’t fare well.

Clearly, you and I don’t agree on this one — but more importantly, I don’t think you understand the feelings of the people in B.C. who reacted so strongly to my column.

You have made a big issue about employment and that it guides your thinking on LNG.

I know the hopelessness of unemployment. I’ve been through a long period of unemployment combined with no assets and no assistance. It’s a horrible experience no one needs. That said, there is good employment and not so good employment. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Tyee | No Comments »

The Struggle to Stop Kemano II: Voices from a Successful Social Movement

Dec 20th, 2014 by

Kemano Tunnel

The stopping of the Kemano Completion Project is a true people’s victory.

by Gordon Young

In the eighteenth century Edmund Burke wrote that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In the last half of the twentieth century British Columbia saw evil almost triumph. Montreal-based multinational corporation Alcan Aluminum wanted the Kemano Completion Project, a giant megaproject that threatened terrible environmental damage.

Against this evil stood many good men and women. The threat Kemano posed so violated wide-spread social values that sectors of society often opposed to each other were drawn together into the fight against it. Kemano’s friends were the powerful and wealthy; Kemano’s foes came from the other side.

The stopping of the Kemano Completion Project is a true people’s victory. Continue Reading »

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Posted in General | 4 Comments »

“The environment IS the economy” says Tory MP Weston…Really?

Dec 19th, 2014 by

Tory MP John Weston (from his annual Christmas video message/Youtube)

Tory MP John Weston (from his annual Christmas video message/Youtube)

There is surely nothing quite as ridiculous as a Tory pretending that he cares. Money and rich friends they understand but when it comes to the values that ordinary people revere they’re at sea. In fact they’re bewildered by those who think that the poor ought to be considered by society or that such things as lakes and mountains and animals and parks and neighbourhoods have any serious meaning to people.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t understand that they must make believe and always speak in loving terms about the things that I’ve mentioned.

There’s another sure thing to be added to Benjamin Franklin’s “death and taxes”. It’s that by reading the bullshit in a Tory MP’s annual newspaper to his constituents you can determine, with only the minimum of thinking, what the Tories are really planning and what their electoral word games are going to be all about. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

What’s the NDP thinking jumping on Liberals’ sinking LNG ship?

Dec 6th, 2014 by

BCNDP Leader John Horgan talking LNG at UBCM meeting (Photo: BCNDP)

BCNDP Leader John Horgan talking LNG at UBCM meeting (Photo: BCNDP)

I suppose it’s not unusual for an electorate to feel swindled. It sure as hell happens often enough.

The BC electorate has every right to feel swindled in the election of 2013 by the Christy Clark government’s solemn promise to make us all wealthy through LNG plants. This was a very specific promise and even went as far as promising a “prosperity fund” of $100 billion, plus all of our provincial debt soon paid off. This was crap, they knew it, we fell for it.

Now, for God’s sake, the NDP opposition has joined in the swindle at a time when the Liberals, now that their promises cannot possibly be fulfilled, are frantically looking for a way out for the 2017 election.

NDP support comes as LNG industry falls apart

It’s incomprehensible that the John Horgan opposition would support the Liberals on their LNG endeavours, particularly since Petronas has all but admitted defeat, and they are supposed to be the first out of the box! Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 3 Comments »

Gentleman Jean

Dec 3rd, 2014 by

Jean BeliveauIt was not bad being a Montréal Canadiens fan when I was growing up during the 40’s. That decade was, however, dominated by the despised Toronto Maple Leafs so it was always an uphill battle.

Incidentally, I was deprived of a sterling hockey career by a bit of bad luck – I never learned how to skate.

By the time I got to UBC in 1949, I found a Montréal Canadiens soulmate in the late Robin Heather. He and I used to listen to games together (there was no TV then) and we used to follow in the papers the career of a young whiz kid playing in the Quebec hockey league for the Quebec Aces. His name was Jean Beliveau and by all accounts was sensational. Beliveau refused to sign with the Montréal Canadiens, who had his NHL rights, because he was making too much money playing “amateur” hockey! Continue Reading »

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Premier Clark, spare the kids, parents your Kinder Morgan lectures

Dec 2nd, 2014 by

11-year-old Kate Fink-Jensen (CTV) and Premier Clark (Lyle Stafford, Postmedia)

11-year-old Kate Fink-Jensen (CTV) and Premier Clark (Lyle Stafford, Postmedia)

Premier Christy Clark has taken it upon herself to criticize the parents of Premier Christy Clark has taken it upon herself to criticize the parents of two 11-year-olds who protested the Kinder Morgan action in Burnaby and were only not arrested because the police chose to refrain from doing so. The premier is concerned that the these children have been encouraged, by their parents, to “break the law”.

This requires, I submit, a bit of examination.

I trust that premier Clark has no objection to parents instilling in their children the principles by which they govern themselves. I suspect that her son Hamish is being brought up to be a free-enterpriser, as defined by his mother and father. (Oddly enough, after the last legislative session, I assume that NDP opposition leader John Horgan agrees with premier Clark, given his obsequious support of her and her government on the LNG issue). Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Critics of Burnaby Mountain citizens are out of touch with public will for change

Nov 28th, 2014 by

84 year-old retried librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook)

84 year-old retried librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook)

I’m inspired, if that’s the right word, from two quite irreconcilable sources.

First, the Vancouver Sun editorial of last Thursday, and secondly a wonderful movie called Revolution, by Canadian Rob Stewart, which I urge you to see.

The Sun editorial, amongst other things, mocks those who are protesting at Burnaby Mountain and all who generally oppose pipelines, oil companies and the like and it points out of the need for air travel to Kamloops and other such things.

“It is time for those protesting against Kinder Morgan work crews on Burnaby Mountain to stand down. They have made their point and are now breaking the law… It should be remembered that pipelines are of national importance, with international trade implications, which is why, ultimately, the federal cabinet bears responsibility for sanctioning such enterprises.”

Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

What We Forgot on Remembrance Day

Nov 24th, 2014 by

Cartoon by Greg Perry.

Cartoon by Greg Perry.

Where is the democracy our brave soldiers fought and died for?

At our Remembrance Day ceremony in Lions Bay, we heard a great deal about sacrifices made in two world wars for democracy and freedom — a pretty constant theme, I dare say, right across the country.

This troubles me greatly. Those who died for Canadian democracy — indeed all those who served — must be bitterly disappointed at the legacy they see.

What triggered this thought was when Finance Minister Joe Oliver didn’t give his pre-budget speech to the House of Commons but to a group of political supporters in a private lunch and then on New York television. The Commons, with the basic obligation to approve the budget or not, was ignored as if it was irrelevant to the process — which, as I will show, it is. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Tyee | 1 Comment »

Tough on Kinder Morgan, Corrigan & Robertson my kind of mayors

Nov 23rd, 2014 by

Re-elected mayors Gregor Robertson & Derek Corrigan. Photos: CP (left) / Dale Cornish/Forest Ethics (right)

Re-elected mayors Gregor Robertson & Derek Corrigan. Photos: CP (left) / Dale Cornish/Forest Ethics (right)

Derek Corrigan is my kind of mayor. So is Gregor Robertson.

Both of these mayors are prepared to look beyond the immediate concerns of their city and take a broader view. I have no doubt that Robertson, who won very handily I might add, did so because he was fighting Kinder Morgan. Without any question, that position greatly enhanced the existing popularity of Corrigan.

Social change demands civil disobedience

Now that protesters are being arrested, we see a number of people expressing their undying support for “law and order” and thinking that jailing protesters is a great idea.

I have a few questions to ask them. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

The Law is an Ass: Burnaby citizens’ loss to Kinder Morgan

Nov 20th, 2014 by

Kinder Morgan contractors clash with citizen protestor on Burnaby Mountain (Darryl Dyck/CP)

Kinder Morgan contractors clash with citizen protestor on Burnaby Mountain (Darryl Dyck/CP)

“If the Law says that”, said Mr. Bumble, “the Law is an ass”.

The good citizens of Burnaby have lost their case against the large international corporation, Houston-based Kinder Morgan, who wish to extend their pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby.

The company sought and received from the Court an injunction to keep protesters from interfering with their work on Burnaby Mountain Conservancy.

Kinder Morgan case harkens back to past injustices

Over the past few months I’ve found myself reading up on legal writing from the past. I’ve become interested in judges of yore and in particular have been reading the famous letters between Sir Frederick Pollock and the great American jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

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