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Another Open Letter to MP John Weston on Tankers, Salmon – from his Constituent, Rafe Mair

Jul 13th, 2012 by

John,

When we met at the meeting at the North Vancouver church last night, on pipelines and tankers, you mentioned that we have known one another for some years ,as we indeed have. Far from having any dislike of you, my feelings are quite the opposite. I often remember the tour you took me on of Boston when I came to address the Harvard Canadian Club, of which you were a member.

I’m going to get right down to cases. You have disappointed me in that I thought that you might just buck the system and stand up for your province but you have manifestly failed.

You said last night that you voted for Bill C-38 because it would enhance “process” around fish habitat. That was a lie, John, and I’m surprised that a good Christian would make such an egregiously false statement. You voted for C-38 because you had to – just as one of your colleagues did after expressing some public concerns. The truth of the matter is this was the Budget and you had no choice. What you could have done and should have done, seeing you are a “process” person, about which more in a moment, is support those MPs irate that the budget process should be abused to contain substantive policy changes (fish habitat, for example) in it. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

No Time for Relief as Regulators, Media Dismiss Enbridge’s Pipedreams

Jul 11th, 2012 by

A clean-up worker at Enbridge’s spill into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.

No one likes to hear those four words, “I told you so”, but Damien and I have been raising the issue of Enbridge for over 2 years. Our warnings have been confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board in the US, in ringing terms, with Enbridge being compared to the Keystone Kops, which, in addition to comparing them to the fumbling police of that name may be a not-so-sly allusion to TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the Tar Sands to Texas.

The report is devastating and even moved The Vancouver Sun’s Vaughn Palmer – thus far noted for his silence on this matter – to conclude that the Enbridge deal is “doomed to be non-starter.”

I wish I could feel the sense of relief many do but I can’t. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

From Moran Dam to Enbridge: The Danger of Focusing on Economics Over Environment

Jul 8th, 2012 by

The Fraser Canyon, which powerful interests fought for decades to dam.

Robyn Allan is the former President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of BC and is an economist by trade. I have enormous respect for Ms. Allan and concur with her conclusion, stated frequently and as recently as July 6 in The Vancouver Sun, that the proposed Enbridge Pipeline will have a deleterious impact on the Canadian economy generally and that of BC in particular.

The economics of this huge issue are, of course, very important to the decision making process and to the decision itself. My caveat is, however, to dwell on the economy brings with it great risks.

The argument is the same one respecting dams and fish. If one were to debate a dam on the Fraser River near Lytton, the economic argument is all in favour of the dam. While the salmon runs to be ruined will cost the province and those who fish a lot of money, that is offset by the enormous financial gains from the dam itself many, many times over. In fact such a dam, called the Moran, has been on the drawing board since late in the 2nd World War when it was pushed by the federal government. Premier WAC Bennett raised this issue again in the 1960s and was only stopped by the outcry of those who put the heritage of our salmon ahead of the incredible profits that would come from a huge dam. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian, The Tyee | No Comments »

If I was a BC Tory Under Harper, I’d Resign

Jul 5th, 2012 by

I have received a lot of feedback on my recent blog on John Weston, MP.

Let me say that this was directed to Weston because he is my MP and it applies with equal force to all Tory MPs from British Columbia.

I’ve been asked if I would resign were I in John’s position and I say YES. Now, I realize that’s easy to say – he who has not sinned has not been tempted. I have no doubt, however. I sat in a cabinet that had half a dozen ministers who would have resigned under these circumstances. Premier Bill Bennett recognized this and it was taken into his consideration, I’m sure. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Rafe Takes his MP John Weston to Task on Pipelines, Tankers, Fish Habitat

Jul 2nd, 2012 by

Dear John Weston, MP,

A short time ago you held a meeting in Lions Bay to announce that through your sterling work and doggedness we will soon have a National Health and Fitness Day…or is it a whole week? Well done, I’m sure.

The thought may occur to some that this is a little dollop given to backbenchers to see that they are busy little bees and not doing the devil’s work like raising real issues that concern an MP’s constituents and home province.

I invite you to answer a few questions on the minds of, dare I say, most British Columbians who want you to listen to them, then take a public stand. I certainly understand, as I’m sure most people do, the need for party solidarity under our system. This must, however, surely take a back seat to forthright and courageous deeds when the very essence of your constituency and province are at issue as they are in BC today. The Harper government, with steady support of the Victoria Liberals, have implemented policies that will destroy us. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Premier Clark Gave Away BC’s Seat at the Table for Enbridge Review

Jun 29th, 2012 by

Sometimes big stories go relatively unnoticed, as this one has for months. I’m indebted to Les Leyne of The Victoria Times Colonist and the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre for this information. Renowned economist and former ICBC CEO Robyn Allan has also worked hard to bring this matter to the fore.

The Joint Review Panel is examining the proposed Enbridge Pipeline and the province of BC, unlike the province of Alberta, will not be at the table as a Government Participant. BC is an intervenor, which permits it to be there and open to questions from the Panel, but not to call evidence which would, of course, permit cross-examination so the Panel would have the full picture as to how British Columbians, or at least their government, feel about this project.

The government could still have filed evidence before the JRP as late as last January but decided not to do so. Yet – and get this – in May of this year, Premier Clark said that her government is still undecided as to whether it will call evidence, even though it abandoned that right 4 months before. Either Premier Clark didn’t know about this situation – very difficult to believe – or deliberately misled the House. Ms. Clark really has no excuse, especially since Robyn Allan raised this issue in mid-April with an open letter to the premier which received a reasonable amount of attention at the time. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

No Souls but Lots of Cash

Jun 27th, 2012 by

Cartoon by Ingrid Rice.

BC’s crucial environmental battles pit citizens against politicians’ love of corporate money.

Call out the militia! The capitalist hordes are at the gate!

Corporations have a legal body but no conscience or soul. They look out for themselves alone and don’t give a rat’s posterior for anything else.

Do I sound like a radical to you? Permit me to examine my own education on large corporations which, I admit, was at a turtle’s pace.

My maternal grandmother, Jane Macdonald from Cape Breton Island, came to Vancouver when she was a young woman and brought with her a solid distrust of corporations and Toronto where most of them lived. She wouldn’t permit Campbell’s soup in the house. This was not just because of the massacre at Glencoe when the Campbells massacred the Macdonalds in their sleep, but also because they were an eastern corporation based in Toronto, and thus in her view didn’t give a damn about people. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Tyee | No Comments »

Province Newspaper Pulled Cartoon Under Pressure from Enbridge

Jun 26th, 2012 by

Pasted hereon is one of the funniest clips I have ever seen. It’s a spoof of an Enbridge pipeline video ad by Vancouver Province cartoonist, Dan Murphy. It’s brilliant and was on the Province’s website last Friday. It was pulled a few hours later after an enraged call to the Province by Enbridge.

I go back a long way with Dan, he and I both having drawn and written respectively for the late and much lamented Equity Magazine.

I have, over the Campbell/Clark years, complained that Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun and Mike Smyth of the Province were self-censoring with respect to the Liberal government. I could not believe that these two fine writers had not noticed the Liberal governments consistent egregiously bad behaviour on environmental issues like fish farms, rapacious private rivers, BC Hydro and, yes, the proposed Enbridge pipeline. I have always made it clear, as I do now, that if I were supporting a family I too would take care not to submit columns that displeased my boss. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 3 Comments »

BC Conservative MPs Who Abandoned Our Wild Salmon May Find Voters Abandoning Them

Jun 23rd, 2012 by

Conservative MP James Moore poses in front of an artist’s depiction of a wild BC salmon; last week, Moore abandoned the real thing.

Note well the names that follow, for they are British Columbia MPs who voted for the final destruction of the Pacific Salmon, the sea going Rainbow trout (Steelhead), river resident Cutthroat, resident Rainbow trout, river dwelling Dolly Varden and Bull trout:

Don Albas, Ron Cannan, John Duncan, Ed Fast, Kerrry-Lynne Findlay, Nina Grewal, Richard Harris, Russ Heibert, Randy Kamp, James Lunney, Colin Mayes, Cathy McLeod, James Moore, Andrew Saxton, Mark Strahl, Mark Warawa, John Weston, David Wilks, Alice Wong, Wai Young, and Bob Zimmer.

These toadies are our Conservative Members of Parliament, the blind followers of ultra-conservative Stephen Harper. They voted for Bill C-38, which in itself was a gross abdication of democracy in that it was an act to amend the Budget Act, yet included in it critical amendments to the Fisheries Act and many other environmental protections, making it all but a slam dunk for developers to ravage salmon habitat. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

Dear Mr. Dix: A Letter From Rafe Mair to BC’s Future Premier

Jun 20th, 2012 by

Dear Adrian Dix,

The recent polls show that you and your party have a wide lead over the Liberals and Conservatives – something which gives many of us who care deeply about the environment encouragement, including thousands of us who are not usually supportive of the NDP. It is those people whom I have in mind today.

The political spectrum has altered substantially in recent years with a wide gap in centre, which your party is clearly occupying. To do this with success you must address concerns about the nineties when the NDP was in office. Apart from the fact – a big one – that the NDP had, ahem, leadership problems, in fact the NDP had a much better track record in fiscal matters than painted by the “right”, especially when one considers the sudden trauma of the “Asian ‘flu”, which all but ground our forest sector to a halt.

The Campbell/Clark Government has, with some success, painted the NDP as a government that bankrupted the province. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 1 Comment »

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