The Hook

Disappointed

I am seriously reconsidering my monthly contribution to Suzuki. For him to identify the gas tax as a key issue, when there are destructive fish farms, potential off shore drilling, coal bed methane projects and tanker traffic into Kitimat all threatening the environment, support for an ineffective and unequal tax makes no sense. A Green vote is equally disturbing as it is merely a wasted vote which enhances Campbell's chances.

Time to get serious about throwing out this arrogant and corrupt government.

Suzuki

Ive done alot of research on this man, do you realize he has done mountain climbing all over the world and yes hes one ho has left all his garbage behind. hmmm sounds more brown than green. It is also reported that people have gone by his house and have seen his lights on all night. Hypocracy. Im sorry but I cannot follow a man who doesnt practice what he preaches.

The Spoiler

So the strategy is to get folks disgruntled with Campbell but still wanting to support "the green economy" to vote Green instead of anyone who actually has a chance of getting elected - i.e. the NDP.

And that's why all this media focus on Berman, Suzuki et al.

A lot of young people I know vote for the Greens simply because they think it's cool.

The NDP should therefore focus their campaign on their support for the extra rights for Indian band members issue (which due to corporate and government preferential hiring is affecting rural "non-status" young people in very unjust manner) and all the folks who are disgruntled with that issue will vote for the Provincial Conservatives.

suzuki and ndp support

david I feel that you have sold out to the pollutors. you taught me thru your many excellent programs that the most effective way to solve them is at the source.Now you ally yourself with a group which cares very little about the environment and everything with money. SAD AND DISAPOINTED ! FISHER

Suzuki and Jack Layton

People need to know that the political background to David Suzuki's actions starts before the carbon tax issue and at the federal level.

When the Conservatives introduced their Clean Air Act, Jack Layton and Nathan Cullen decided that the NDP's strategy would be to work towards improvements through the committee process rather than defeating the government and forcing an immediate general election.

Suzuki and his entire staff were furious because Layton and Cullen made this decision without clearing it with him first. They didn't phone him up and say, "Gee David, what do we do now?"

And that's where it all started. Suzuki soon became a devotee of the Liberal line that Layton was responsible for Harper coming to power in the first place when he joined all the other parties to defeat the Paul Martin administration in the fall of 2005. The fact that Martin wanted an election because he was ahead in the polls and in reality staged his own defeat by not coming to any agreement with either Gilles Duceppe or Jack Layton seems not to have occured to Suzuki. Neither has it crossed his mind that the Liberal threat to defeat the Conservatives on the Clean Air Act was totally hollow, given the 50 or so times they voted to sustain the Tories in the 39th Parliament.

And then there were the tax audits. CRA has been auditing Suzuki's Foundation and he has been apopletic about it, seeing a Harperite/Nixonian/Hooverish conspiracy in his troubles. Who knows, maybe he's right about that. But he blames all this on Layton as much as anyone, because he's bought the Warren Kinsella Liberal line that Jack put Harper in.

So it's against that backdrop that David Suzuki has decided to do everything he possibly can to skewer the NDP at both the federal and provincial levels. These provincial condemnations of the NDP by Suzuki and Andrew Weaver and Tzeporah Berman are really just an intensified re-run of positions they announced in last October's federal election, where they were doing whatever they could to promote Dion's Green Shift. And if they couldn't help the Liberals gain ground, they could at least try to prevent any growth in the NDP vote. In B.C. at least, the last part of that strategy worked, and in this provincial election the overarching strategic objective for Liberals and their academic and ENGO allies is to prevent an NDP victory that would ultimately energize the federal party, both in B.C. and across the nation. They will do whatever it takes to achieve that objective.

May 12th will be a key test of environmental voters in B.C. Do they vote on environmental issues as they understand them, ... or do they simply take instructions from the movement's most established and affluent leaders such as Berman, Weaver and Suzuki.

Endorsing another gas tax for general revenue. Go figure.

I stopped listening to Suzuki a long time ago. He's the guy that only looks at single issues. Campbell could eat children but if he had a gas tax so high most people could not afford to drive - except Suzuki - that would be OK. It is an elitist environmental position devoid of realism.

I always amazes me that people make donations to his cause when there is enough poverty and disease in the world and those causes could really use the money.

Never heard Suzuki endorse Dion's Green Shift, not that I voted for Dion, but if he was going to be consistent you would think that he would have. So the three along with Berman con go on howling in the wilderness for all I care.

Janie Jones

"The NDP should therefore focus their campaign on their support for the extra rights for Indian band members issue"

As you say, the Conservative party already serves as the vehicle for those that feel that way.

Its not a traditional area for the NDP either, in general the NDP has been a defender of native rights. The problem here of course is the impact on non-natives.

David Suzuki

You're right fisher, Suzuki's Nature of Things didn't say we should look at just one issue in isolation, he taught us to look at the whole ball of wax because everything is connected and one thing can impact another and no one should sit in judgment saying this species is more important than that species etc.

So for a guy now to attack a party wanting to stop run-of-river while not saying boo about the party that is destroying our rivers all because he likes their tax policies is very disconcerting.

Who is running the PR show

Who is running the PR show for these enviros? If they're losing credibility with people engaged in this blog, where else are they losing credibility?

The Donor Base

VicRK
Who is running the PR show for these enviros? If they're losing credibility with people engaged in this blog, where else are they losing credibility?

If some people who are interested in environmental issues and have subscribed to and read their reports and publications don't agree with the political stance that they are taking in this election, and last fall's election too, that's not necessarily a big issue for these ENGOs.

What is a big issue for them is what their donor base thinks. As Tommy Douglas used to say, "He who pays the piper calls the tune".

Pembina/Suzuki/Jaccard Report Dec 2008

Here is what an analysis of Canada\'s options on climate change, DEEP REDUCTIONS, STRONG GROWTH, written by MKJA for the Pembina Institute and the DSF, paid for the the TD Bank Financial Group, had to say about what a climate action plan must look like:

\"There is a strong consensus among experts that an effective and economically efficient national
plan to achieve substantial GHG reductions must combine
• a policy that puts a significant price on GHG emissions broadly across the economy —
this can be a cap-and-trade system or an emissions tax
• regulations and public investments in sectors where the response to the emissions price is
hampered by market barriers or market failures, or where emissions pricing cannot be
easily implemented
• measures to protect people on low incomes
• measures to protect industry sectors where a significant portion of production and
associated emissions would otherwise relocate to countries with weaker policies.

This quote can be found on page 4 of the report: http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/2020-prelim-full-e.pdf

Perhaps someone else can find the blanket corporate tax cuts to corporations to ensure their bottom lines don\'t change and they are therefore not motivated to change their practices part. The folks at ENCANA appreciate this feature of the BCLiberal program, so hopefully Dr. Suzuki would want the same.

James Hoggan...

James Hoggan & Associates was also hired by former Glen Clark aide and current Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs on $60,000 worth of contracts (supported by VV council) to communicate the aftermath of the Olympic Village matter last December.

Looks like this guy is well connected.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax ansd use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax ansd use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax ansd use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax ansd use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax and use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

here we go again

Listen all you people who cry about a carbon tax and use the EXCUSE that you don't have transit.
If you had it you probably wouldn't use it. And.... you don't have transit because you believe in and worship your automobile(s).
I live in a rural area. We lobbied for years to get a bus. Now we have one and the excuse is: it doesn"t come up my road. Well, did you ever hear of Park and Ride?
I see you idling mindlessly at ferries, or fast food joints and in parking stalls. I see you driving around and around waiting for a parking spot closer to the store .
The auto companies got you and the rest of the world well trained about what form of mobility to use. They are still asking for your support.

Please try again, carfreed

I didn't catch it the first six times ....

A vote for the Green IS a vote for the Liberals

David Suzuki knows that a vote for the Green is a vote for the Liberals. For him to say that he is not endorsing the Liberals - he knows very well that he is.

The Carbon Tax does not work - I have totally lost all my respect for these so called scientists and environmental groups who's own advisor is in the back pockets of the Liberals, or for those who's research is funded either directly or indirectly by the Liberals.

Just follow the money!

But munroe, he said "here we go again"

munroe
I didn't catch it the first six times ....

Actually, carfreed is off message calling for Park and Rides. Those are officially a bad thing according to Eric Doherty. Well, at least they're a bad thing when they're located at West Coast Express Stations. When they're located in West Vancouver or White Rock, they don't draw any criticisms from Doherty.

carfreed

Campbell raised the price of transit. I'm all for transit and in fact I think it should be free. Studies show that lower wage people tend to ride buses and trains more than those rich enough to donate large sums to Berman and Suzuki.

We already have a 7 cents a litre gas tax in the Lower Mainland that anyone east of Aldergrove doesn't have to pay. I support that idea far more than the "carbon tax" but the money should be going into reducing transit fares not raising them.

Also, the environment is not just CO2. There's rivers (RoR) and forests and oceans (offshore drilling) to protect too and I don't see Suzuki, Jaccard and Berman holding 24/7 news conferences during the election campaign hammering the Liberal record.

Its pretty obvious their strategy is defeat the NDP, keep the money rolling in and to hell with the real environment.

Suzuki - Hypocracy

I believe in many of the things the David Foundation says ought happen. The Nature of Things taught us to be critical of our actions and those around us so that we might be able to do the greatest good and the least amount of harm to this planet around us. I have applied that teaching to the actions of David Suzuki. I used to believe in David Suzuki, but blind faith in anybody or anything is religion. David Suzuki's actions do not elevate to the level of a saint nor a diety: he is just a man. He has his frailties.

Along with his other properties, David Suzuki maintains a rather large personal vacation estate on Quadra Island. The last I knew, he was still pumping his raw sewage from that estate straight into the waters near Heriot Bay. I believe he also still maintains a boat with a diesel engine that ties up at Heriot Bay. It also dumps his personal sewage into the ocean. David Suzuki has enjoyed travelling the world in hugely-polluting jets; and, as far as I know, he continues to do so even as he ages. He earns great gobs of money by being camera-friendly, charismatic; and he probably donates a fair amount of work to various tax-friendly charities (like his foundation), but he also preaches behaviours that he does not follow.

By those in David Suzuki's tax bracket, the Liberal's carbon tax is barely noticed. He will not need to change his personal behaviours because of it. He is the high priest who rapes the virginal Earth because it will help him rest. After-all he is most important. The peons beneath him who cannot afford a new hybrid will pay a much higer percentage of their incomes to make it to work to rebuild the dock where he ties up his boat. Suzuki is not promoting raising the taxes of the wealthy to build less polluting systems of transportation: he is very wealthy. Even were he to now employ green technology and deal with his waste in eco-friendly ways, it is too late: he has been a hypocrit for far too long.

There is not much of a genetic difference between an eco-guru and an ass; I think the later is the least hypocritical and often less harmful to the environment.

Non-native or non-status native?

Hi Frank - I am beginning to prefer the term non-status native for those of us, like myself, who are born, raised and have lived and worked in BC for all of our lives. We have no other cultural affiliation. According to the Creator's laws, this is our home and native land.

It's not as if the Liberals are not already allowing foreign corporations to cut deals with Indian bands to put IPPs in BC's watersheds as if they owned them.

This strategy mirrors the Israelis who, despite their legality, use Jews-only settlements as the means to fuel their expansionist policies in the Middle East.

Perhaps the NDP should make hay of the fact that the carbon tax, like the gas tax, does not apply to natives:

https://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/documents_library/notices/Carbon_Tax_Refunds_Deputy_Collectors_Retail_Dealers.pdf

As I pointed out in another thread, it's no wonder they're driving shiny brand new F350s to the mall.

Greenies for Gordo again

Da Gucci Suzuki plays to the easily manipulated low information green voter who is incapable of independent research or thought. Many writers have shredded da Gucci's green tax stand yet these greenie fools keep repeating the same mantra. Statistics Canada data reveals that fuel consumption climbed four per cent since the gas tax was imposed - the second biggest increase in Canada. Even paid Neocon spokesman Jaccard admits gas taxes would have to be upwards of 24 cents a liter to be effective. The maximum 7.25 per liter cent green/gas over which silly greenie voters use as an excuse to vote green and reelect Mr. Brown -Gordon Campbell, is less than price increases and decreases I see every week at my corner gas station. That amount doesn't effect mine or anyone else's driving habits.

Low info greenies don't understand that paid Liberal party shill Green Tax Jaccard is one of the Neocon economists from the thoroughly discredited Milton Friedman Chicago school that gave us the current economic depression. Surveys of republican (aka BC Liberal) voters show 80% of them do not believe in Global warming and yet Greenies propose to vote green and reelect those people.

60% of the green tax refund is going into the pockets of Big Liberal party campaign boosters like Humongous bank who pay almost no green tax.
Low information greenie types are very similar to the American red neck voting big business Republican which on election proceeds to shaft the fool.

Luke, what is your point?

You throw out information as though it is relevant and most of the time you have to have a twisted mind to see a connection. I once shared a plane trip with a liberal in the seat next to me, I once hired a liberal to replace my roof, does that make me a liberal?. God man, do you really think this way.

Desperation

The personal attacks here on Suzuki are a sure sign that he has been effective. I guess folks are having a hard time coping with a cynical platform and a poorly managed NDP campaign. Maybe they should ask the enviros how its done.

As I predicted, the NDP campaign is a walking disaster.

Four more years of Campbell, god help us.

puckerlips: Revealing Comments, ... more than you realize

puckerlips
The personal attacks here on Suzuki are a sure sign that he has been effective. I guess folks are having a hard time coping with a cynical platform and a poorly managed NDP campaign. Maybe they should ask the enviros how its done.

As I predicted, the NDP campaign is a walking disaster.

There's two things to note here. First, you disapprove of people critiquing Suzuki, yet you have no problem with Jaccard, or Berman, or Weaver attacking Layton and James in quite personal terms, using labels like "dishonest" and "cynical", the latter a term you use yourself. Why the double standard? Can the NDP not fire back when fired upon?

You say the NDP campaign is mismanaged, a "walking disaster", and they should "ask the enviros how its done". This, I believe, is your primary pre-occupation, what is a good campaign, which party is doing the best ads, the best spin, has the best media plants, and is in general being a prime example of how the modern persuasion industry goes about its business.

Four more years of Campbell, god help us.

I find it hard to accept that this is an outcome you're at all worried about. I think it's pretty clear that's the outcome you want. Fine. But why not just say so? Would that be less effective in terms of spinning the readers?

pucker?lips?

I'm sure those of us who wish a progressive alternative want to adopt the Green myopia which has been so successful in electing governments in Canada. GMAB!!

Suzuki also endorses Campbell's ROR

http://www.vancouversun.com:80/Technology/California+rejects+green+power+claims/1453593/story.html

Disappointed

Are there any non-partisans and/or non-Dippers commenting on this site? I ask, because it looks like commenting has been taken over by the orange crowd.

Chrystal, I am an NDPer. Is that a problem for you?

cocean
Are there any non-partisans and/or non-Dippers commenting on this site? I ask, because it looks like commenting has been taken over by the orange crowd.

Chrystal, I have commented on this thread because my party was being strongly criticized by a well-known, national CBC broadcaster who has a very wide audience. I don't think that prevents Liberal supporters such as yourself from making your own contributions, as you have just done.

I realize many people revere David Suzuki, regarding his as a great and saintly man. Fine. My information is that his beefs with the NDP have a lot more to do with politics than policy, and I have shared that material. Are you saying I have no right to do so?

Just a quick question to RickW:
I didn't see any reference to Suzuki in that article. Did I miss something?

Now what........

Suzuki,Berman,Weaver etc etc, they fired off all their "ammo" Carole James like a champion stood her ground.
Could you imagine what Campbell and his freinds would be saying if Carole James "Flip Flopped"?

So for the Liberals,now what,for the green "Guru`s" now what......

The Carbon Tax (boring)--Lets talk fish farms and closed containment,lets talk Enbridge pipe line,ROR,offshore oil n gas,coal extraction,old growth raw logs leaving the province.......
Carole James will talk about these issues,in fact today Carole James was in Point Grey today,right in the heart of Suzuki country(Campbellville),and for a background in the TV shot were booms of raw logs destined for other countries.

Disaster for the NDP?--NOPE--The complete opposite,the true greens will ask the "other" questions,Liberals have no answers,.........

So the green voter has now been sliced open like a ripe watermelon......

Seeds and juice exposed,will the green machine vote Campbell,no siree bob,the greens will be in full attack mode towards the BC Liberals,now the Greens,the real greens,the average joes will have to make a decision......

Waste their vote on Jane Sterk,Jane who?

Vote for "Offshore Gordie" offshore vacations,offshore Accenture,offshore bank accounts,offshore oil n gas.....

Or vote for the NDP

I saw an interesting Gordon Campbell TV ad last night.......

A 30 second spot,Campbell sitting in an office(alone)talking matter of factly about his "special" relationship with Stephen Harper.

So there it is...Gordon and Stephen,complete with BC liberal lawn signs that are in the traditional "Tory blue" colours....

Campbell is trying to fend off wilf Hanni but has now totally offended all Federal Liberal supporters.......

Interesting? You bet, especially with the latest federal polls have iggy way up,and Harper way down (and both IGGY and Harper say NO Carbon TAX)
Looks for sparks when the federal Liberals are here for their convention at the VTCC..one week before our BC election.....

All is Good,plan is on track

Cheers--EYES WIDE OPEN

Smelser, you are partially right

The campaign is my focus here. The "modern persuasion industry" is how you get elected, seems to me.

Saying someone's policy is dishonest or cynical does not constitute a personal attack. Calling them Da Gucci does.

My purpose is not to condemn these attacks by either side, but to show how much more effective the enviros have been.

I suggest that's because the NDP position, despite the animated protests here, is built on sand. The arguments that it's a tax on the poor, or it's sop to the rich, or it's not effective, etc. simply do not make sense to this left-of-centre voter.

Carole Taylor's tax shift is a piece of political brilliance that will save Campbell's ass, thanks to NDP blundering.

Incidentally, I wonder what the Lib caucus meetings were like when Taylor fought for it ? And now what do they think ?

I have been an NDP activist for decades, and I'll vote NDP again this time. This campaign breaks my heart. There are so many issues besides the trivial, benign-at-worst carbon tax, yet the NDP has put it right at the top. Where from this foolishness ?

Puckerlips,brilliance?

I don`t think so.......

Come to the rurals and ask about the Campbell tax on GAS/Home Heating/Propane/diesel/natural gas.....

Campbell has lined up his argument,his allies for a year now,and look at you(puckerlips)your still voting NDP.....

Bill Good,Palmer,Keith Baldrey(the apologist)--make this statement "When gas prices were high people were upset with Campbell`s fuel`s tax,but now the fuel prices have dropped people aren`t upset over the tax"

That statement is so dishonest,that`s like saying people don`t mind the BC property tranfers fee because house prices have dropped! Ever see people line up for gas at one station to save 2 cents a litre,while the gas station accross the street is empty?

As for Carole Taylor---You might ask why she fled the BC Liberals?

puckerlips: Totally Unbelievable!

puckerlips
Saying someone's policy is dishonest or cynical does not constitute a personal attack. Calling them Da Gucci does.

This is the most ridiculous things I have heard is some time. Try these rules of etiquette yourself sometime in real life and find out what happens to your circle of friends.

best I can do

I have contributed $10 a month to Suzuki ever since Fulton took the top job. I just called and cancelled the automatic contribution. There are other environmental groups who are deserving, especially Sierra with their new point person, George Heyman.

The struggle continues, but Suzuki's bed is crowded with unsavouary characters.

There's nothing cynical about telling the truth

And the truth is that the Campbell Tax is a completely ineffective and pointless, not to say costly, administrative nightmare that does not ONE THING to reduce greenhouse gases.

If environmentalists and 'CAMPBELL LIBERALS' are so stupid as to believe such nonsense that's YOUR problem - not mine

Good Shot, Munroe

munroe
I have contributed $10 a month to Suzuki ever since Fulton took the top job. I just called and cancelled the automatic contribution.

That's the way to play it.

I am reminded of the time two years ago when I had to cancel my PAC to the BC section of the NDP because I was totally annoyed by the party's position on redistribution and the size of the assembly, and by Carol James's statements in Surrey which appeared to say no to the PMH1 project, which I believe to be as vital to this nation's future, to its international trade and competitiveness, and to productivity and average wage levels as any other project I can think of.

I am pleased to say that I received soon thereafter a letter from the BC NDP head office stating that the NDP realized the PMH1 project was essential, and that spin applied to James's statements making it appear otherwise were just that, spin. However, since I was still upset about the redistribution situation, I choose not to reinstate my PAC and haven't done so to this point. I make enough other donations that the PAC was really superfluous anyway.

Rod Smelser

No, you didn't miss anything.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/02/13/RiverPower/
[David Suzuki Foundation] has endorsed the use of low-impact renewable energy, including run-of-river hydro, as part of the solution in B.C.

The link was posted to show that California doesn't consider BC's version of ROR top be Green. So why is Suzuki endorsing it?

Run of River

Suzuki, Campbell and Berman say Run of River is green energy.

The BC NDP and the Save Our Rivers people (including Rafe) as well as the state of California, population 33,871,648 says it isn't.

Hmmm, who to believe....

This is not the same Suzuki......

.......who hosted the Nature of Things. Must be a doppelganger. Or, barring that, a sleeper...............

Suzuki is a hytpocrite

An absolute, unabashed, out-and-out hypocrite. This guy attacks the NDP for taking a policy position on tackling climate change that even the National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy agrees is the best approach? And yet, he says not a word about the fact that the Campbell Liberals have the absolute worst environmental record of any government in BC History.

He doesn't mention that the Libs' carbon tax proposal lets big oil and gas companies, and industry off the hook. That's because Campbell's plan, that Suzuki has gone gaga over, doesn't cover some 30% of carbon emissions, including: 'fugitive emissions' (gas flaring) by oil and gas industry; cement and aluminum production; emmissions from agriculture, and much more.

Suzuki also doesn't say a word about the fact that the Campbell Liberals support off-shore oil drilling; allowed oil, gas and mining exporation in BC Parks; gave billion dollar subsidies to the oil and gas industry; support coal-bed methane exploration in prime BC wilderness; and are spending $3.5 billion to build a 10-lane bridge to replace the Port Mann - which will increase single vehicle traffic exponentially, cause massive urban sprawl in the Fraser Valley, and cause huge increases in GHG emissions.

Oh, and let's not forget that the Campbell government moved to de-regulate the monitoring and enforcement of environmental standards across the province - expecially for forestry and industry. They cut 30% from environmental budgets, cut enforcement staff, and have allowed industry to monitor and regulate themselves. Environmental enforcement staff have largely lost the ability to pro-actively investigate and enforce provincial laws. They can now only act in the event of a formal complaint.

The Campbell government is an unequivocal environmental disaster, and Suzuki is willing to sweep all that under the carpet, to promote his personal pet project, that will see a massive downloading of costs onto middle and low-income British Columbians, while big business gets off almost scot-free?

This is hypocrisy at it's finest, and worst. Suzuki should just admit that he drank the BC Liberal Kool-Aid proffered by his BC Liberal board chair and recipient of government pork barrel contracts, James Hoggan, and join Patrick Green on the corporate payroll. I'm completely disgusted by his actions, and will NEVER give another penny to that corrupt organization!

Rod Smelsor: "Chrystal, I

Rod Smelsor: "Chrystal, I have commented on this thread because my party was being strongly criticized by a well-known, national CBC broadcaster who has a very wide audience."

Fair enough.

Rod: "I don't think that prevents Liberal supporters such as yourself from making your own contributions."

Not fair.

On what basis do you assume I am a Liberal supporter? That I question why so many commenters here appear to be of the orange persuasion?

I am a nonpartisan and as a nonpartisan I am put off by an army of apparatchiks, regardless of party colour, some of whose troops won't, don't, or can't address the arguments or points raised in the article.

It's frustrating for nonpartisans like me who want to deal with substance, not rhetoric.

cocean

There wasn't much in the article for us to dispute. Its natural that we would discuss the overall topic raised by the article in our own ways.

As for why so many of us are of the "orange persuasion", I think it might have something to do with the fact that Can-West is very pro-Liberal so when an alternative news site starts up its naturally going to attract those of us whose views are not being reflected in Can-West's coverage, which in this case happens to be NDPers.

Suzuki wouldn't know a 'Green'; economy if he tripped over it.

Suzuki is another famous Canadian "Legend in his own mind" that if it were not for the CBC, would have been a 15 minute wonder.

Maybe Suzuki and Berman making complete asses of themselves, pretending to be "higher propose persons", will help the NDP and hurt the parties they endorse.

I am scared that tax and spend Campbell is been given a free ride by the "mainstream" media (desperate for Liberal advertising revenue) and if it were not for the blogosphere, there would not be any truth at all!

Cancel my Suzuki Donations

I will definitely cancel my donations to the Suzuki Foundation. How any environmentalist can prefer the Campbell regime's love of oil, gas and big business over the opposition party, which hasn't been in power for 8 years, is really disturbing. What possible explanation can explain this? One theory is that the whisper campaign against NDP socialism, trumps all rational thought about saving the planet.

But guess what. The environmental threat is far more serious than the continuous anti-socialist propaganda repeated ad nauseam by US monopoly capitalism. Indeed, it is rampant capitalism (which is really monopoly statism) that has created the disaster we are facing.

Obviously, the Suzuki Foundation, DeSmogBlog, WCWC and too many others have accepted WAY too much Liberal money. Money is the perfect foil against principle. Accepting money is the first step in compromising ones ethical values. These massive environmental NGO's have failed the public. A very, very disappointing time in BC.

Cancel my Suzuki Donations

I will definitely cancel my donations to the Suzuki Foundation. How any environmentalist can prefer the Campbell regime's love of oil, gas and big business over the opposition party, which hasn't been in power for 8 years, is really disturbing. What possible explanation can explain this? One theory is that the whisper campaign against NDP socialism, trumps all rational thought about saving the planet.

But guess what. The environmental threat is far more serious than the continuous anti-socialist propaganda repeated ad nauseam by US monopoly capitalism. Indeed, it is rampant capitalism (which is really monopoly statism) that has created the disaster we are facing.

Obviously, the Suzuki Foundation, DeSmogBlog, WCWC and too many others have accepted WAY too much Liberal money. Money is the perfect foil against principle. Accepting money is the first step in compromising ones ethical values. These massive environmental NGO's have failed the public. A very, very disappointing time in BC.

Berman on CFAX

Holman has Berman on his radio programme. Far from being an articulate spokeperson on the environment, she is a broken record. She claims the gas tax is "working", but provides no factual basis, In fact, the consumption of fossil fuels has INCREASED by 4% since it was introduced. She loves private run of the river projects and favours the corporate giveaway private power represents.

Strangely, she never mentions oil tankers or the exemptions granted major polluters. She shills along praising Campbell's "greenwash" agenda. She quite simply let's Campbell off the hook on the drilling issues and road expansion projects.

Thank God, she's gone from the Party.