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Memo to Media: Watchdog the Environment

Jun 24th, 2013 by

Six issues the press must cover to hold power in this province accountable.

Now that the BC Liberals have a new four-year mandate we need media vigilance more than ever.

Although to see it in action you wouldn’t know it, the press has special constitutional protection both in our written and unwritten constitutions which give it a unique position in our society. Thomas Jefferson put it this way: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

And yet, at a moment when our liberties are fast eroding, the press, which should be fearless in our defence, has gone silent.

There are two ways the media can become pointless: By disseminating untruths or not saying anything at all. And by depriving the public of the true state of affairs. Postmedia, owners of the Vancouver Sun and Province and therefore key to the conversation in this province, appears to be guilty of both shortcomings. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Tyee | 1 Comment »

Mainstream Media Ignoring Real Story on BC Hydro Debt, Skyrocketing Power Bills

Jun 16th, 2013 by

I find myself in complete empathy with H.L. Mencken, when he said “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

I read Vaughn Palmer in Friday’s Sun, where he said, talking about the challenges facing Bill Bennett (not the real one but the one now in charge of BC Hydro), saying his mandate is “to minimize rate increases to consumers.” Palmer counters, “Yet Hydro needs to manage soaring debt, rising costs and billions of dollars worth of spending in unresolved deferral accounts. Plus it is being pressured to deliver gobs of clean, cheap power for an expanded liquefied natural gas industry.”

Vaughn – where the hell have you been?

I’ve defended the pussycat approach you and your colleague Mike Smyth have taken towards this government for some years, saying that, unlike me, you have mortgages and education fees for your children that I don’t have thus I shouldn’t criticize the ongoing corporate blowjobs you have given and continue to give the Campbell/Clark government. No more. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 8 Comments »

Site C Dam, LNG a Bad Deal for British Columbians

Jun 13th, 2013 by

Artist's rendering of proposed Site C dam.

Artist’s rendering of proposed Site C dam.

I want to clarify my position on the proposed Site C Dam: I AM AGAINST IT.

One of the troubles in this business is that one comments on many aspects of the environment and can have a word or two or a line taken out of context – as happened with a column of mine last week, in which I referred to newly elected Premier Clark’s resolve to push forward with the dam to power shale gas operations.

Here are my thoughts on Site C.

We do not need the power, nor will we in the foreseeable future. In a blog sometime many years back, I answered the question, “Isn’t Site C better than so-called ‘run-of-river’ projects?” My answer was  if that’s the choice we face, I suppose I would have to agree. Except it’s false premise, since we don’t need either. That was, I believe, about 2008.

Now I would leave no doubt. These are two separate issues. I am unalterably opposed to so-called “run-of-river” because they not only destroy our precious rivers, they are – if they haven’t already – bankrupting BC Hydro. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

What the Heck are John Horgan and the NDP Thinking?!

Jun 12th, 2013 by

Ok, John Horgan (BC NDP Energy critic), now I’m pissed off. You were quoted in the Vancouver Sun this week as saying you’re unhappy that the NDP lost, etc, weep, sob.

Here it is in plain, unadorned English: I TOLD YOU SO! In fact, my advice to you and your party has been constant and goes back to Bob Skelly’s day. The fact is that politics is a blood sport – not just in BC but everywhere and in politics as in baseball. Lou Durocher was right – “nice guys finish last”.

Who the hell made the decision to ignore the Liberals’ appalling record? Defeated candidate Harry Lali, when I spoke to him weeks before the election, agreed with me that the election policy of the NDP was calculated to lose.

Who ran this show? Moe Sihota? Was perpetual loser Gerry Scott back? Or was it former Liberal Government chief of staff/Enbidge lobbyist/bottom pincher Ken Boessenkool? Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 5 Comments »

The First Thing BC’s NDP Needs to Change

Jun 10th, 2013 by

Cartoon by Greg Perry.

Cartoon by Greg Perry.

Is their approach to campaigning and politics in general. Here’s why.

It was a smashing defeat for British Columbia’s New Democrats. In my view, it will be difficult for them to be in fighting form before 2021.

I understand that eight years is a long time and that in politics a week is an eternity. But the NDP has a daunting task ahead of itself. I’ll deal with what needs to happen to get the Liberals out before this in a moment.

This province is a 30-30-60 political affair. Thirty per cent will vote NDP no matter what. Thirty per cent will vote for the party of the “right” and getting the 40 per cent out to vote and vote for you is what makes the winner.

I’m not saying that I like this or think it’s remotely democratic. Democracy is not an essential element in our system — that’s just how it is.

This has led to dramatic differences between the “left” and the “right.” The right-wing coalition (Socreds morphed into Liberals) positions itself as populist. The issues don’t usually matter very much as this past election proved. Most issues this election didn’t favour the Liberals for the very good reason that they were caused by their own right-wing government. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Tyee | No Comments »

Take Clark’s Disingenuous Enbridge ‘No’ with a Pound of Salt

Jun 6th, 2013 by

Here are three things to remember about Premier Clark and the Enbridge pipeline:

1. She did not reject the pipeline – she simply said that Enbridge had not met BC’s conditions.

2. She has, simply said “we want money”, which reminds me of the old chestnut where a man invites a lady to bed offering her $25,000 dollars. With much hemming and hawing she accepts. He then offers her $25 dollars instead and she shrieks, “Do you think I’m a common whore”. He replies “we’ve already established that madam…now we’re dickering about the price”. That’s what the premier has done.

3. She hasn’t asked the main question – nor has anyone else including the media. That is, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary you can clean up a leak, assuming you can, how do you expect to get crews and heavy machinery into the Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Trench, Coast Range or Great Bear Rainforest? Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

With NDP Loss, It’s Up to First Nations and Public to Protect Environment

Jun 3rd, 2013 by

First Nations and BC citizens march together against Enbridge in Prince Rupert in 2012

First Nations and BC citizens march together against Enbridge in Prince Rupert in 2012

I think most environmentalists are still in a state of shock over the Liberals’ victory – or more correctly, the NDP loss.

The NDP campaign was the worst I have ever seen, and that’s saying something! I thought 2009 was bad but it wasn’t a patch on this one.

There’s no point in trawling over the ashes – suffice it to say that I publicly advised Adrian Dix, about half way through that politics in BC was a blood sport and that he was in danger of losing.

It didn’t take the Vancouver Sun long to get back into the swing of things with a four-page corporate blow job getting every point of view save those opposed to pipelines and tanker traffic. All the faces of unrestrained capitalism were there, including the great floor crosser himself, David Emerson. The environmentalist’s position was confined to a couple of quotes – I can assure you that neither Damien nor I was questioned. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Surveying the Rubble after BC’s Election

May 28th, 2013 by

The future of our province was at stake; the results disastrous.

“And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win.”
“But what good came of it at last?”
Quoth little Peterkin.
“Why, that I cannot tell,” said he,
“But ’twas a famous victory.”

As I surveyed the rubble from the recent election I thought of Robert Southey’s grandfather-grandson exchange as the former tries to explain the Battle of Blenheim after turning a skull over with his plough.

If this had been a sporting event the outcomes of which never really matter, I would congratulate Premier Clark and her colleagues for “a famous victory.” But this was not a sporting cup but the future of our province that was at stake and rather than being an open debate on the real issues it became a classic Liberal/Socred political victory, B.C. style. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Tyee | No Comments »

Rafe Remembers Elijah Harper, Constitutional Stand-off

May 26th, 2013 by

Photo: Tom Hanson/CP

Photo: Tom Hanson/CP

In a way I share an experience with the late Elijah Harper, who nixed the Meech Lake Accord. I have been airbrushed out of CKNW’s history – Rafe Who? – while the late Mr. Harper is a national non-event thanks to the Central Canadian Establishment.

The background to Meech is pretty straightforward. Brian Mulroney needed political help in Quebec and persuaded all the premiers to support a set of constitutional reforms – labelled the Meech Lake Accord –  whereby all the other premiers would postpone their constitutional ambitions until Quebec was settled nicely away with its “Distinct Society” designation AND a veto over all future constitutional proposals. If you’ve advanced past Politics 101 you will see that once satisfied, Quebec could and would veto other changes such as Senate reform. It was a colossal mistake and one can only assume it was contracted on the back of an envelope during the cocktail hour.

It was agreed that every province had to ratify it by June 1990. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Clark Will Break Up BC Hydro

May 17th, 2013 by

Over the years I have done blogs, editorials and the like unto the thousands.

This is the all time shortest.

Within the next four years, BC Hydro, once as good a power utility as there  was in the world, will be broken up.

It is, you see, presently bankrupt by private corporation standards, and only keeps, barely, afloat because it can and does go to us the taxpayers and consumers for more money.

This will end because the taxpayers/ratepayers will be tapped out.

Just what form the break-up takes, we’ll have to wait and see, but as sure as God made little green apples, she’s a goner.

Here is the crunch: Mike Harcourt will not be to blame and nor will Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh. Nor will it be because of some unforeseen world market.

This catastrophe belongs to Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark alone. They forced BC Hydro into making huge “sweetheart” deals with private producers to whom they now owe some $50-60 BILLION; the entire sordid affair happened on their watch with their blessing.

Christy Clark and the Liberals, on May 14, 2013, inherited their own tailor made dunghill, the only challenge being to clean it up without accepting responsibility. And with economists like our own Erik Andersen, the truth will emerge every inch of the way.

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

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