Yes, the stage is set - but......

There is still enough forest left on the Coast to devise workable forest-use strategies (not a la GBR), and the utter failure of the Interior forest industry to deal logically with the Pine beetle makes the necessity for change obvious.

And yes, fish farms, RoR, giving away of forest land for development, the ALR fiasco, and so on, are all having a cumulative impact upon public perceptions.

But holding back a genuine ground-swell in environmentalism is the belief among enviros that somehow, if we put all our eggs in the FN basket, they will have both the methods and the will to do things differently.

arbled Murrelets

And we can add to the list of Campbell's anti-environment stances his ignoring of the Forest Practice Board's recommendation re setting a definitive policy on Marbled Murrelet habitat.

This bird presents a real problem for his good buddies in the forest industry, since their nesting requirements are in the Old Growth.

The Fed's SARA boys are about to release their take on MaMu habitat, and I predict dead silence from him.

Privatization of Public Assets is Theft

The Campbell government continues to privatize public resources and assets like our rivers, water, power, wood and oil. Most societies would consider this theft from the public realm. And they would be right. Campbell's sudden "green" look is clearly based on next year's election. Predetermined ala the US electoral system, which frankly has no place in a parliamentary political system. Whatever.

So unless significant changes are made in the environment, I suspect the public will be able to determine that indeed, the emperor has no clothes. Thanks Rafe and the Tyee as always for writing and printing real news stories of actual interest!

A dubious hypothesis

"a new enviro" movement - certainly a quick conclusion- but is it correct? With few exceptions this "new" movement is no different then the 'old enviro movement' - both essentially see their task as to not challenge Capitalism per se or the Capitalist theory of the state but rather to oppose isolated developments as they arise, to advocate for the protection of wildlife/aquatic habitat, and to protect species at risk, and the only new part- to reduce 'greenhouse gas emissions by articulating for more reliance on renewable energy. What would be new - hopefully it will happen- is if the 'enviro' movement joins their voices to a "new" democracy movement - to not only challenge and intellectually deconstruct the centralized power of the Executive Branch of government which empowers monopoly Capital in its destructive rampage - AND to create a multitude of visions of how we might revitalize our democracy by employing new politial/legal ideas such as subsidiarity/harmonization, participative budgeting, genuine progress indicators, more localization of political and fiscal power, etc....AND how we might civilize our economy...rather then continue the corporatization of our economy and our deeper continental integration. I am sorry Raif...until this fledgling 'new' enviro movement matures and deepens its analysis and range of solutions to the crisis we face, it is in my view the same 'old. Raif, you report nicely, but we need is not just reportage, but an analysis of why we are where we are, and potential directions the 'enviro' movement could take to challenge the Capitalist state and monopoly Capitalism. The only new folks on that scene who actually do that- not reported by Raif - are the 'eco-socialists' -which is not the NDP who pose no challenge to Capital but seek to accomodate it, and the Green's - who primarily advocate 'market solutions' (i.e. taxation) within the confines of corporate monopoly capitalism.

Thin Veil of Eco But,

Mostly heavy on the leftism. Why not just call the article "I hate Gordo and the BCLiberals and I love the NDP". Just like every other Rafe article: short on substance, heavy on opinion, no solutions and a couple of typos.

This one's real good. I bet if BC Hydro was building these he wouldn't say "the public sector is destroying wilderness". Let's eliminate the eco-rhetoric here, clearly the argument is private vs. public power, not whether RoR is good or bad for the environment.

Providing the answers

Politics has become global out of necessity and the global GREEN movement realized this niche as far back as the late 70s and early 80s. It has taken time for the grass-roots movement to catch up to the mainstream (and vice-versa), but there has been some major growth and maturity taking place from Green Parties since and, perhaps more importantly, a broader awareness of the issues pertaining to the issues that Green policies outline most effectively.

The important point Rafe points out here is the positioning on the traditional political spectrum. The NDP (provincially and federally) have proven insufficient representatives on key issues like fish farming, old growth forest management, energy, and conservation.

Providing market-based solutions within an acceptable context that attracts voters trapped in ideology-driven partisanship ensures an important level of accountability. If the traditional parties do not take these issues seriously enough, the Greens are there to bring them onto the scene and provide a balanced, systemic approach instead of just "opposing" whatever the gov't puts out.

Moving from reactionary politics to proactive politics is what is needed more than ever and until traditional parties catch up, the Greens are taking up the slack and providing a viable option and alternative to the status quo.

Gordo's gas and brakes at the same time trick

"The Campbell government has made a terrific political mistake in assuming that if they appeared to be doing big and fancy things over global warming that the public wouldn't notice things like fish farms, bad logging practices and devastating rivers and streams."

The Campbell government also made the error of thinking that nobody would notice that they have continued on their Gateway freeway building binge, despite their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 33% by 2020.

Spending billions on freeways while promising to reduce emissions with a modest carbon tax is like trying to stop a car by stomping on the gas with one foot while pressing on the brakes with the other. Gordo is trying to ignore the nasty burning smell, but it is getting stronger.

The New Eco-Movement Party...

VancouverPointGreen:

Yeah, the Greens are at record support levels now in BC... 16% (Ipsos) and 17% (Mustel). They have never polled these levels in BC before... even going way back to 2001.

On Vancouver Island the Greens are at 26%, just 10% behind the tied NDP/Liberals. (Ipsos)

The Greens virtually tied the NDP in the recent Vancouver Quadra by-election even winning polls in Kitsilano and UBC.

Who woulda thunk?

When I woke up this morning

When I woke up this morning II was neither green nor red nor blue nor black politically. The party system tries to carve up my political consciousness and that of the electorate into 'greens;' 'red', 'blues' etc..and this splits up the vote so the 'fat cats' and their cronies get elected ad nauseum according to the prevailing 'first past the post' electoral system...and if that happens again in May 2009...once again I and many others, as well as the natural wild - will all be singing that famous Rolling Stone song - "Can't Get No Satisfaction'. Party. I am neither attracted by the party politics or policies of the NDP the Greens or the BC Liberals - and if there is no unity slate of persons with integrity and calibre...along with a modest unity slate..I simply won't be voting. and I suspect I will not be alone in that strategy. The system is broken, and regretfully Luke, your polling enthusiasm of 16/17% means nothing in terms of political power within the design we have now. It ought to- but it doesn't. Likewise, the NDP's polling of 35% or so - will not translate into enough seats for governance. Some of your bright party folks need to study 'game theory' - especially the game called The Prisoner's Dilemma--co-operation is need asap to protect and advance the public interest...not the corproate interest or continentalist interests.

Peter Dimitrov...

Are you sure about that Peter? ;)

Weren't you an NDP candidate for party leadership in 2003 where Carole James won???

http://www.workingtv.com/bcndpleader.html

"They saw the government fib

"They saw the government fib when they said they wouldn't sell BC Rail, when they said they would never privatize BC Hydro, when they denied the huge stacks of independent evidence damning their policy on fish farms and now when they tell us that the private sector destroying wilderness is the way to get the power we need. What does this mean in political terms? "

Last I saw, a 49% approval rating! These guys could bring in a policy to deport single grandparents to Cuba as a "saving Medicare" program and they would still get elected.

Peter

"...if there is no unity slate of persons with integrity and calibre...along with a modest unity slate..I simply won't be voting." I suspect that there will be a lot of people doing the same thing. The odds that with the NDP losing again there will be no excuse for some creative political thinking which was lacking the last time. The sad thing is that with Gordon there for another five years ( including the one left) there won't be much hope for BC.

4.5 years later...

4.5 years have gone by Luke Skywalker..for several years now I have belonged to no party, neither do I support MMP which the NDP advocates--the last thing I would want to see is party lists of MMP candidates. The next election is May 2009...my eyes are wide awake to the reality that the 'democracy deficit' also applies to the 'parties' and the nomination processes, and the minimal base of support for most parties, and the hard reality, that unless there is an electoral accord, or a unity slate and a unity platform Gordo and the machine gets another 4/5 years to do what they will with the people and landscape of this province...and we will all be getting more of the same. If it were true, that we as players were simply gaming a game called 'bcpolitics" - we at least would consider the wisdom offered by the game Prisoner's Dilemma - and co-operate for our mutual benefit. But it wasn't on last time, and unless pressure is brought to bear by the potential electoriate on the Greens, the BC NDP and small "l-liberal" voters it will not be on for May 2009. We will have a plethora of candidates and elections promises..and Campbell and the briefcase boys will walk up that big divide. So I am not for maximizing political party's interests or poll numbers, I am all for maximizing pressure for a unity slate and unity platform to get rid of the neo-liberal virus that infects this province..that is pushing as all towards a 'social-genocide' as described vividly in a DVD of that name that potrays the corruption and collapse that beset Argentina.

Environment is not a left wing Right wing issue

Moving to the center of the political spectrum on the environment, Mr. Mair is exactly the problem. Environment should not be looked at as a right wing, left wing conundrum and we should not seek environmental solutions in the center of the political spectrum. This type of environmental planning Mr. Mair is like suggesting that putting one man in boiling water and another in cold water, and then saying that this moving to the center is a great plan because on the average the two men will be comfortable. This approach is a euphemism for not making laws or enforcing the laws that are on the books now.
In 2005 Raif wrote that he believed “that under her [Carol James] the NDP has finally started down the path that the British Labour party trod on its march towards the Centre. So we’re essentially faced with a party of the right [Gordon Campbell Liberals] showing no inclination to move to the centre. British Labour party by moving to the center may have brought the fish back up the Themes but at the same time it has destroyed the Danube marshes and the water table in the Danube bend. This same Labour party has made the Balkans glow with depleted uranium and this is a good thing that we get according to Mr. Mair by moving to the center of the political spectrum.
Raif tells us a little joke about legislative banter back in the old days so we would forget his role in the present environmental destruction. Raif knows that when he lived in Kamloops heavy metals and other noxious substances were floating in the air above the valley and dropping on our lawns. He didn’t even answer the letters from PROBE BC while at the same time the government ignored our submissions and warnings of heavy metals in milk, pollen grasses and lichens. Our common law property rights were subverted ever since the Industrial Revolution by statute law and regulations.
What we need in British Columbia is a Ministry of Environment [ME] that at least enforces the laws that are on the books. We need a ME with teeth to enforce the letter of the law and does not hide the spirit of the law in its regulations. We need a ME whose administrative law is not a Potemkin village where regulations subvert the law. We need a ME that updates its legislation every five years. Some legislation has not been taken off the shelf since Raif sat in the legislature. I don’t need to tell you how archaic that is.

mcdull

google up cknw ---they have an audio vault so you can here a replay of the bill good show -you can pick specific times--campbell was on from 9.15 to 10.oo I got my questions in about 9.45- a mere handfull of callers got to pose questions--and I am sad to say that I was the -- only tough questions--I asked him --the port expansion is going to put 5000 more big trucks on the road,and the south fraser perimeter road through burns bog is going to destroy burns bog (according to enviroment canada and others) and my second question to the gargler was--If we were to do some run of river projects,why can`t bc hydro pay companies to build these projects ( these companies can make a decent profit ) and bc hydro keep ownership and the profits flow to bcers,the way wac bennett had intended!---bill good got it ---campbell waffled

Thanks for the updates. I

Thanks for the updates. I don't know how many mills are still working on Vancouver Island but we lost another today here in Ladysmith. The BC logging policies on the Island have cost us many mills and now three more companies are down the tube with the equipment being auctioned off. Like last time they will go south just like our logs.

Peter Dimitrov

I agree with you that a "Unity Party" appears to be the only hope for dethroning King Gordo.

However, the NDP hasn't yet shed itself of the pressure exerted by the corporate-friendly unionists who still believe that only centrist policies attract voters. It's little wonder that voters then say to themselves "Hell, if the choice is a business friendly government, I might as well vote for Campbell"

Someone noted above that we tend to vote governments out rather than in. Maybe that's the Silver Bullet Carole's depending upon?

ME2...

It's little wonder that voters then say to themselves "Hell, if the choice is a business friendly government, I might as well vote for Campbell"

So you are saying that the BC NDP should now engage a new left-wing platform, akin to the federal NDP, and move downward from 31% to 14% where the federal NDP is currently situate in the polls?

Most centrist voters will then say.. "Hell why continue to vote for the NDP when they no longer represent my beliefs... I'm now gonna vote for the Liberals or Greens."

Centrist view of environment

You either support environmental protection or you don’t. A centrist view just deteriorates the environment slower it does not protect it. We either pay the price now or we will have to pay it in spades down the road. As I said in my previous post a centrist approach to environmental protection is like putting one person in boiling water and another in freezing water and on average they will be comfortable. Just look at thousands of abandoned mining sites in BC and I mean thousands that continue to leach arsenic and other contaminants into our streams and rivers and the water table because of the half way measures taken by previous governments particularly the one Mr. Mair represented.. Ask the owners of Britannia Mine if you can find them when they will start the cleanup of Howe Sound.

Luke

Most centrist voters will then say.. "Hell why continue to vote for the NDP when they no longer represent my beliefs... I'm now gonna vote for the Liberals or Greens."

You're looking at it wrong and comparing apples and oranges.

People have already left the NDP (like Peter Dmitrov, Lynn, Canis Latranis) because they no longer talk and act like a left-wing party. A huge part of the province doesn't vote because they aren't represented.

A left-wing party would allow lefties to vote FOR something. Just as the Green party gives right-wing environmentalists a party to vote for.

After all, 10 years ago you would have said the Greens have 1% or less support so what's the point of them becoming more green? Well, there is a point.

Or look at the Reform Party. They split from the Pro Cons and moved the party to the Right even though no one in Canada said there was any appetite among Canadians for a party further to the Right than Brian Mulroney. Yet that's what they did and now they're the government. You couldn't have explained that by polls. In fact, anyone looking at the Tories being wiped out would have been hard pressed to say they weren't right-wing enough.

What you're doing is simply looking at the polling of those who have a party to support. You're ignoring those that don't, in fact its not even part of the percentages you post. And that's why you're surprised by the rise in Green Party support and why many were surprised by the rise of the Reform Party.

As for the federal NDP, their numbers would be less than what they are if they hadn't moved Left. There is no room for them on the Right.

Frank...

A left-wing party would allow lefties to vote FOR something.

Reminds me a bit of the current German political scene. Disgruntled left-wing scoial democrats have left the SPD and formed The Left Party in conjunction with the eastern-based Party of Democratic Socialism.

That unity has seen their numbers rise from about 5% nationally to 14% today.

One caveat though, the neo-liberal social democrats don't want to form coalition governments with The Left (outside Berlin city state).

The SPD would rather have the conservative CDU as a junior coalition partner (or the FDP or Greens) than The Left in state parliaments (eg. Brandenburg and M-VP).

The last six Mustel polls list "other" at between 2% - 3% of "decided" voters, but you might be right, in part, in terms of the usual roughly 10% - 20% who remain undecided, although that does not necessarily infer that undecideds are "left-wing".

Luke

I didn't mean to imply that they all were. My examples were the Greens and the Reform Party, neither of which are left-wing parties in my opinion.

My point is simply that we tend to ignore the increasing numbers that don't vote. And then are surprised when out of nowhere a party comes along that upsets the current balance. The reason we're surprised is that we buy into the Don Newman-esque view of politics which is that polls perfectly reflect the people's views when in fact what they reflect is people's limited choices. Your German example supports me I believe.

My view is that if the BC NDP split into two, the combined strength of the two parties would be much stronger than they are when combined into one. Something that would not be shown in a poll because the polling firm only gives you the current parties + "other" as you say.

I'm all for the Balkanization of our political landscape which I would expect to happen under STV. To me STV is the means, not the end, the end being better representation by making smaller parties viable and therefore engaging more BCers.