Who Crowned Gordo?
Our premier acts like Louis the Sun King.
Campbell: Royal pain?
(Note: A few weeks ago I was clearly wrong to bring George III into this mess as the following will, I hope, amply demonstrate.)
Louis XIV, the Sun King, the last European king to exercise total power, is reincarnated, alive and well in Victoria. He and Russia's Vladimir Putin have one thing in common -- they think they're the only mortals on the planet who can handle public affairs. The public may sometimes be heard but never, for God's sake, listen to them!
Consider the power now in the Sun King's hands. All municipal power is ultimately wielded in Victoria. Any project His Majesty's friends want to undertake, no matter how much the people who will have to live with it object, will be approved without any interference from tiresome councils.
The power of Metro Vancouver (formerly the Greater Vancouver Regional District) to run Transit within its boundaries has been gutted and transferred to friends of the King. This unelected, unaccountable new transit authority will have wide ranging powers to raise money from taxpayers who have nothing to say about it. Where have we heard "no taxation without representation" before?
Louis XIV controls the environmental assessment process in that he gets to choose the guy who runs it. It comes as no surprise then that environmental assessment is started after the deal is done. The present process has no power to stop a project, only to make the best of it. Such projects as the Sea-to-Sky highway very much including the Eagleridge desecration, the South Fraser Perimeter Road and the Deltaport expansion gave no chance to the people who live in these areas to express an opinion before the deal was cooked.
All hail the untouchable one
The Agricultural Land Reserve poses only a token problem when His Majesty decides that his government would be fine with seeing the land developed, especially if it might help swing a deal with an Indian band.
There is of course the understanding that the King can do no wrong. He can be thrown into jail in lands across the sea without any loss of power at home. Members of his court, however, can be banished for writing a nasty letter.
Our beloved monarch can sell our property, like BC Rail, call it a lease, and account to no one.
The next move will be when our Sun King grants rights to WestPac out of Calgary to build an LNG plant on Texada Island so that they can sell gas into the American market with the huge safety and environmental risks being borne by local residents. Incidentally, the King must know that no American state on the Pacific coast will take this highly dangerous plant -- dangerous not only as a plant but supplied by dangerous tankers.
Let them eat farmed fish
With all the elected tyranny we've seen, none can compare to the arrogance shown by King Louis on the Atlantic salmon farms issue. From the outset the King has denied all problems in the face of overwhelming independent scientific evidence. Report after report have been issued outlining a host of environmental problems, all of them serious, including the devastating attacks by sea lice from the cages on migrating pink and chum salmon smolts. Eighteen world class scientists wrote to the premier, oops! I mean, His Majesty last fall begging him to understand the problem and make the farms move from the path of migrating salmon smolts and he hasn't deigned to reply.
Last month, the following article appeared in the Vancouver Sun, after first appearing in the Victoria Times-Colonist, usually committed royalist papers incidentally, which reflected reports in virtually every English speaking media story in the world -- making British Columbia look like a bunch of idiots in the bargain.
Here's the story based on the release of a paper by Martin Krkosek and Alexandra Morton published in the highly regarded Journal of Science. Headline: "Fish farms to blame for possible wild salmon extinction: study." Published on Dec. 13, 2007, reporter Scott Simpson wrote:
"A groundbreaking scientific study has today established for the first time a large-scale and deadly link between fish farms and sea lice infestations that threatens to wipe out entire populations of wild Pacific salmon."An article to be published in Friday's edition of Science, one of the world's foremost scientific journals, says wild pink salmon runs on the British Columbia central coast will be extinct in as little as four years because of a cluster of salmon farms that are creating lethal infestations of sea lice in that area. [emphasis added]
"The article's authors, including University of Alberta researcher Martin Krkosek and B.C.'s Alexandra Morton, looked at 37 years' worth of Fisheries and Oceans data for 71 central coast rivers and found that wild pink runs have comfortably withstood decades of commercial fishing -- but cannot survive fish farms. [emphasis added]
"'What we have seen is a very rapid four year decline in the pink salmon populations in the Broughton,' Krkosek said in an interview earlier this week.
"'Based on that measured rate of decline, which is real, we can expect that in another four years those fish will be all gone if the sea lice infestations continue. [emphasis added]
"'Sea lice hyper-concentrate around the farms and spread to wild salmon migrating in the vicinity of the farms. The lice may not be lethal to adult fish, but they're deadly for infant pink salmon making the transition to the ocean from their natal streams. . . .'
"The report says lice infestation rates are 70 times higher among juvenile pink salmon on central coast rivers compared to infestations in fish farm-free areas farther north.
"It also says mortality rates among juvenile pinks infested with sea lice 'is commonly over 80 per cent.'
"'If outbreaks continue, then local extinction is certain, and a 99 per cent collapse in pink salmon abundance is expected in four pink salmon generations,' the article says. [emphasis added]
"The study brings an element of finality to the debate about the threat salmon farms pose to wild fish. It also puts Canada's federal and provincial governments, and the salmon farming industry, at odds with the reigning body of opinion in the global scientific community." [emphasis added]
His Majesty's agriculture Minister, one Patrick Bell, reacted angrily because the Journal of Science didn't inform him first. The King himself hasn't deigned to reply.
Who is the State?
But the verdict is in. Sea Lice from fish farms are destroying our wild salmon while the King acts as if this issue was just some sort of parish pump political game. His supporters use every diversionary ploy possible. They point out that many other things kill the wild salmon smolts and of course that's so. Smolts must deal with predators in the river before they start migration and after; temperatures may kill them; there may be other factors they have to face. No one denies that. The points are these:
- The major problem the tiny migrating pinks and chum, on their way to the ocean, must face is the mass of sea lice surrounding fish farms.
- Of all the hazards in the smolt's journey, the sea lice from the fish cages is the only one we mere mortals can deal with and eliminate.
All the independent, peer-reviewed and published science makes it abundantly clear that it will be the sea lice from caged farm fish that will do the wild fish in. Louis XIV and his Council of Half-Wits simply don't care.
Louis XIV's government is hell bent on destroying our wild salmon and I can only ask this: How soon will King Louis of British Columbia utter the deathless words of his namesake, l'etat, c'est moi? (for the linguistically challenged, "I am the State")
Related Tyee stories:
- Translink Democracy Derailed
Political appointees to replace elected reps. - TransLink Hijacked
How Gordon Campbell stole your vote on region's fate.
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no1important
14-01-2008
Yes Campbell must go but he
Yes Campbell must go but he won't be going anywhere anytime soon. There is no alternative and he is up in the polls even after 'everything' sea lice, ferries, privatizing health care cleaning staff, etc.
it seems people do not care. It is very puzzling to me. Nothing sticks to him.
It also does not help that the NDP has such a weak leader too.
I can't see him losing for a while. It was almost 17 years before the NDP got in again after Dave Barrett and only because of Vanderzalm did the Social Credit lose (aka BC Liberals). People here have to be real mad to elect the NDP but not so much to get rid of them.
Carole James is not a very good speaker and comes across more as a whiner , that bit about putting so many seats aside for women never went over to well, especially too that there are more women than men in the province. It is not the fact that she did this, but the way she did it that pisses people off.
Yes I am a card carrying provincial BC NDP Member. Trust me I am not the only one that wants her gone. I would not doubt if the provincial NDP were to implode and sooner than later.
Unless the Olympics have major over runs and major debt, I really can not see the BC Liberals losing power. Plus for some reason the Conservative Green Party takes votes from the NDP and not the right wing BC Liberals.
Gordo I hate t say will be with us as long as he wants the job and that is sad, really sad unless you are a corporation.
Jeffrey J.
14-01-2008
Perfect Analogy
Well done Rafe. Let's open our history books and read about kingly centralized power, court intrigue and contempt for commoners. While Rafe has borrowed heavily from the French nobility, I prefer the English era of Charles Dickens. Either will do just fine. If one hasn't read up on the tone of life back then, I highly recommend it.
We have entered a very dangerous era of virtual omnipotence, contempt for democracy, and self aggrandizement. These eras have occurred repeatedly in the past, with awful consequences for everyone but the tiny group of elites who ruled England, France and Spain.
The history of the Western world is the long struggle to rid society of a tiny number of rulers. Much blood was spilt in the process, in the hopes that NEVER again would society be ruled by the few. And now, we are rushing headlong back into centralized, undemocratic abuse of power. Campbell, Harper, Bush. Private meetings with corporate CEO's. Contempt for unions and working people. Destruction of social programs. Eradication of nature. Extermination of wild salmon. All in the name of corporate monopoly.
Our forefathers and mothers would be appalled.
Thank you again Tyee and Rafe Mair.
Gary
14-01-2008
As a former MLA...
Raif, I assume you know a little more about the constitution than the rest of us. Is there not something in there that would have a government removed before their term. I am talking about involving the Lieutenant Governor and/or the Governor General. I saw something there but didn't quite understand it with all the legaleze gobbledy-gook.
freebear
14-01-2008
Too bad he is not a Benevolent King!
No surprise here!
When the author says :
"Louis XIV controls the environmental assessment process in that he gets to choose the guy who runs it. It comes as no surprise then that environmental assessment is started after the deal is done. The present process has no power to stop a project, only to make the best of it. Such projects as the Sea-to-Sky highway very much including the Eagleridge desecration, the South Fraser Perimeter Road and the Deltaport expansion gave no chance to the people who live in these areas to express an opinion before the deal was cooked."
Sounds like how First Nations have been treated for the last 200 years!
murdock
14-01-2008
Nothing new...
Rafe,
Your views are well expressed and while many may agree with them, where is / are the alternative(s)?
Are you not mentioning the total lack of a plan from the Non-Democratic Party?
Once again, we are collectively sleep-walking towards a 'toss the bastards out' election run. One that will not 'toss them out' in the coming run in 2009, certainly if the NDP continues to be the non-presence and not giving any alternative policies to what is going on in Gordo's game.
So far I would not want the NDP back in governance, only to watch what little building business activity that we have here in BC flee to Alberta.
What is really needed is an alternative to the NDP, one that actually will present that credible alternative to the BC Liberals.
Raise the bar, stop looking to just 'throw the bastards out', and look to actually elect a future.
IF the current choice is what I have to select from, then Gordo's gang looks like a 2 in a sea of 0.00003's.
Skywalker
14-01-2008
Right on Rafe, but how did we get here.
I can still remember the hundreds of consultative processes that marked the 90's. It seemed that every time you turned around there was another government agency asking for your input. There were land use forums, treaty forums ad nauseum. Still with all that consultation everyone seemed "grumpy". So here we are. The NDP were not perfect but based on this piece one hell of a lot better than this bunch. You'd never have known it though listening to current crop who all seemed content to trample over the political corpses of the 90's to achieve the "larger opposition". Some achievement.
I suspect that it will take 19 years of Campbell because the strategy seems to be to get the public to forget what the Carole James leadership confirmed by their election strategy. I still see the same stategy at work.
None of the NDP Premiers were as arrogant as Campbell. None of them usurped local authority. None of them wasted as much in the value of BC resources as Campbell. Not even Glen Clark.
Part of me thinks that this is what BC deserves, the best democracy money can buy , but then I remember I am in this mess as well.
Van Isle
14-01-2008
Thanks for the article Rafe.
Thanks for the article Rafe. Just more proof that our democracy is a myth which is propagated by our mass-media, spin doctors (professional liars) and politians.
murdock
14-01-2008
Not the sun king, more Il Duce
I have just listened to the 'announcement' of funding for transit initiatives throughout BC.
This is something that would have, at best, been announced by the Transportation Minister; or even more likely been done by a simple letter or memorandum issued from the Transportation Ministers office.
The whole hoo-ha of the Premier announcing this with a crew of Mayors and MLAs golf clapping made me think of one thing:
"...at least he made the trains run on time."
Sorry to say but this is total overkill for such a thing as this public works plan and an opposite to the view of 'saving or paying down debt' during 'good times' and taking out loans to 'spur' economic activity in 'bad times'.
Carol Taylor is a lame duck Finance Minister and now the Premier and Transportation Ministries are spending like drunken sailors.
morechatter
14-01-2008
Its Corporate Campbell
And he's their King of Wheeling and Dealing with public funds and holdings as one deal after another aiding his Corporate pales at the expense of the his public. The announcement of BILLIONS being spent on rapid transit before the next election is no surprise as many can't even afford fares because they don't make enough money to survive speaks volumes on how Campbell feels about his peasants. Wasn't it governments job to protect citizens against greedy corporate interests?
LuckyGuy
14-01-2008
Not exactly sustainable...
In the past year I have written, on two occasions, to my MLA Colin Hansen with copies to Barry Penner, Minister of the Environment, Kevin Kreuger, Chair of the Natural Resources and Economy Caucus committee, and Premier Gordon Campbell, politely asking them to reconsider or justify their Government's position on open-pen salmon farming, in light of the mounting evidence. I have not yet received even an acknowledgement, much less a reply. Its apparent that this government would rather pay lip service to the trendy issue of the day - sustainability & global warming - while ignoring the actual tragic damage to the ecosystem that they are accelerating by allowing the destruction of the wild salmon.
Moat
14-01-2008
Ok, the salmon are in trouble.
Rafe wrote:
Yeah, but what do we do?
I have stopped buying the farmed stuff from the grocery store. Safeway and Superstore still sell it. My friends still serve it to me during visits (and of course I eat it) because they would not understand my refusal to eat farmed fish and it would not be worth the social cost. As well, things would eventually turn to my red meat eating habits.
How do we effectively get people to care about the salmon of the Broughton?
Do writing and sending "form" letters actually work?
lynn
16-01-2008
the emperor is not wearing a shred of green
bang on , rjm.
But moat, if we boycotted them, perhaps it would provide some much needed attention to a dire struggle... and by informing consumers through the boycott thus change the wants of consumers.
The thing is we're talking just four years here and while I think it's a good suggestion I'm not sure the salmon can wait for all of us to taste test for farmed versus wild consensus at dinner parties.
BC Mary
16-01-2008
Resist! Vote for the Do Nothing Party.
Frank said: By the way, I'm only voting NDP because of the lack of choice we have politically. If there was a party that ran the province democratically and with a conscience I'd switch to them in a heartbeat but since all we have are the semi-literate Liberals and the privatize-it-all Greens I'm forced to vote NDP.
Frank: Try my system: I'm going to vote for the Do-Nothing Party led by that nice Carole James, on the theory that it's better to do nothing than to sell or wreck every precious thing in B.C.
Loblollyboy: To explain why many British Columbians put up with King Campbell when they won't tolerate even modest errors by an NDP government ...
The answer is: we've been trained. Diligently, relentlessly we're trained to react, when we see anything New Democratic, we leap into the air and shriek: "NDP Ba-a-ad. NDP very, very ba-a-ad!"
But at least, we're offered three styles of training: Vancouver Sun, The Province, and Victoria Times Colonist.
Moat
16-01-2008
But how else do we reach the masses?
lynn wrote:
I understand where you are coming from. But if I simply boycott Safeway, and refuse to eat farmed salmon whenever it is served to me, people are just going to question or giggle at my self-righteousness. Alarming people also does not work.
It is a real battle, as many people out there that feel that they really would not miss the salmon, the bears, and some of the other creatures that we exist on the earth with. Just by using our computers we are increasing the demand for electricity (hydroelectric dams). Are we willing to find other things to enjoy that have less impact on the environment?
But that is besides the point. The real issue is how do you reach the ones that say, "I really would not miss the salmon. They are just going to die off anyway"?
zalm
16-01-2008
Choices
I'm lucky enough to live only a few miles from the fisherman's dock so I can walk down on a Saturday afternoon, buy something off the boat and walk back.
There's no easy answers on either side, folks. Eating wild isn't necessarily better, just because. It's harder on the environment, simply because we don't know how to work the black box called the ocean to controllably produce enough wild salmon for all palates. That's why farmed is making inroads. It's also more prone to storing up toxins such as PCBs in tissue becasue of the long life-cycle of the fish.
And farmed can become a healthier choice. Note: I said healthier, not healthy. I can do without the dye and growth hormones because I don't care what kind of makeup my slice of fish wears. Fully contained pens, closed-loop water treatment, and some kind of method of vigorous exercise may help produce better-quality fish. It won't be cheap, but you'll find me on all kinds of threads saying that food shouldn't be cheap.
Good cooking can do the rest. Wild can remain the gold standard for gourmet dining on Saturday night - it just doesn't have to be the only thing you eat if your Monday noon meal is just a maintenance meal.
And, Moat, if you want to taste-test, don't say anything. Just serve them both, and let people pick up on the difference themselves. They will. And they'll talk about it. You may never have to say a word.
Right to Bear
17-01-2008
Our Health, and the Coastal Ecosystems...
There are 2 issues here: Our health, and the Health of the coastal ecosystems (intricately connected to our health too mind you...)
When the restaurants are honest and serve 98% Tumor-free Cedar Plank Farmed Salmon, then buyer beware, as they are deadly toxic. But when the open-net cages are replaced with close containment cages, and the fish farms are inland, then the wild stock will be protected and hopefully recover. This is the most urgent issue here. Go ahead if you will, and eat farmed diseased fish, but keep these fish away from the wild coasts as these animals primarily use salmon as their food to survive on, and we need to care about their survival.
Peace,
Bear
zalm
17-01-2008
Ummmmm.....
I'm with you until you say that farmed stocks are the major contributor to wild salmon stocks' decimation. They aren't. Rafe didn't say they are. Nobody does. They are a serious problem in river mouths where they occur, but that is only a hundred or so of our spawning rivers.
The major issue for wild stocks is the maltreatment of spawning rivers due to logging and roadbuilding, and to warming spawning waters. Lice is a side issue - a potent one, but a side issue. The other issues affect every single one of the thousands of salmon runs in the province, and Alaska's too, which has essentially banned salmnon farms.
As well, you simply MUST address the problem of contamination of wild stocks with PCBs, etc. Neither is good for you - neither farmed stocks which use ground-up "waste" fish containing PCBs, or wild stocks which contain PCBs built up from their more limited exposure yet longer lifespan.
zalm
17-01-2008
But
Thanks Rafe, but in the last couple of days you've just been proved wrong. Nothing can compare to the arrogance of King Grog and his transportation announcements and pollution targets.
Just like Louis the Sun King, he picks a pollultion target figure out of the air, calls it gospel, and says "Go for it!" He sees the sexiest mode of transportation on the market, says to himself "nothing is too good for my subjects", calls his ministers of state in and says "Go for it!"
He's desperate.
On the really important things in life, he's come up a zero. On the health care file, we're spending 35% more than when he was first elected, yet producing 3-18% worse results. He's come up a zero on the welfare file - more children in care are dying under his watch than ever before.
Gorgon is truly unable to solve the bigger problems of our time, but having castigated the NDP for the same results, now finds he must distract, avoid, flim-flam the public's queries.
Gorgon has no answers. Neither did the NDP. The difference is the NDP was honest about it. Gorgon isn't. For a so-called "policy wonk", he hasn't got much.
Loser.
Right to Bear
17-01-2008
Zalm...
Victoria Columnist:
The article's authors, including University of Alberta researcher Martin Krkosek and B.C.'s Alexandra Morton, looked at 37 years' worth of Fisheries and Oceans data for 71 central coast rivers and found that wild pink runs have comfortably withstood decades of commercial fishing - but cannot survive fish farms...".
There are other factors contributing to the loss of the wild salmon, but "Lice" is the most impacting by far...
Cheers,
Bear
lynn
17-01-2008
Doing the right image instead of the right thing
I wouldn't even try convincing these guys, moat.....that could take forever and the salmon haven't got that kind of time - expose their ruthless policies instead. They'll never see the wild salmon as sacred beings in themselves unless they can be pricetagged as future profits, as more greenbacks for their wallets. It's all about what the wild salmon can do for them - and that's pretty much their narcissistic world view on everything.
Instead sock it to 'em where it most hurts. In the pocket book. Fast and hard. It's the only thing they understand.
We have a lot of harnessable power in our refusal to prop up the profit-motivated tyranny of the corporate world - through our refusal to participate in any act that serves to increase their stolen riches even more.
That's why I agree with boycotts (as a partial answer anyway... I know there is a lot more work to do then that). Since image is all important to the art of selling and ever-increasing profit margins.... if suddenly you are perceived as the bad guy and lose sales because of it, that's when businesses get nervous....and phone calls are made to government to fix it... or good-bye party donations.
We don't have to put pressure on Gorgon, his boycotted business friends will do it for us.
Just an idea.... since Gorgon is all cardboard image hiding lack of character - as zalm writes: "On the really important things in life, he's come up a zero" - he and his party spend a lot of time and mostly our money fabricating the right image rather than doing the right thing.
But 2010 is sacred ground for these guys. Front pew seats all round. Where else can they find such Olympian-sized opportunities to compete in the world-wide sport of making money?
But "greedy" isn't quite "the right image" to sport so they have selected a more eco-trendy one. And what they really, really, want to appear as in 2010 is green... sexy green , au courant green, and they hope, more-profitable-green.
It's "easy-green", designed to fool.
The last thing they want in 2010 is to be exposed to the world for bringing about the extinction of a world-renowned species like the wild salmon.
I mean, how's that going to look? ...'specially with all the environmental spin they've been so busy putting out there?
So why not somehow try to link this critical issue with the Olympics....something like getting our athletes and those from competing countries to get on board now in the race to save one of the great species of the world. It falls within the four year framework, focuses the attention of the world on the desperate plight of the wild salmon... and on the arrogant policies of the BCLiberals that are bringing about their extinction.