It Hurts, and Here's Why
Fish farms won. Private river power won. STV is dead.
Cartoon by Ingrid Rice.
The election was a big win for Gordon Campbell and the Liberals and, yes, it hurt and this column is a tad personal.
As spokesperson for Save Our Rivers Society, I travelled the entire province except the Peace River and I can't begin to count the speeches and other happenings. I obviously wasn't able to get out the message about private river energy and for that I must accept responsibility.
Last night was a terrible one for the environment. Alex Morton, who has laboured so hard to save our salmon from the predation of fish farms must be bitterly disappointed, as am I.
I want to examine the election itself but I must touch upon the rivers matter for the record.
Private power generators will increase dramatically. The Bute Inlet project, larger in environmental impact than Site "C," will be approved shortly. When that happens, there will be no turning back. The message I tried to get out and failed in was getting people to understand that BC Hydro is compelled to buy that power at hugely inflated prices that it cannot come close to getting on the market. At present, Hydro has given out contracts amounting to $31 BILLION dollars, rising with each new private power licence and, here's the rub, for energy we can't use because it comes with the spring run-off when BC Hydro has full reservoirs thus lots of power. The private power will go to the U.S. and the process, unless reversed, will spell the end of BC Hydro.
One of the critical points in the election was the Campbell government's steadfast refusal to debate this issue despite all the provocation I could provide. This is a sad commentary on the election process but was a very smart move by Campbell for our case is unanswerable. I suspect that Richard Neufeld's departure for the Senate was contrived as Premier Campbell knew his energy plan couldn't withstand even mild cross examination while the new minister knew nothing about the real issues and would be able to duck debate.
Victories for fish farm, river power giants
The big winners were Marine Harvest, the fish farm giant and Warren Buffet, the largest shareholder of General Electric, partners with Plutonic Power Corporation Inc, the promoters of the Bute Inlet project. The big losers were those who care about fish and rivers.
In addition to refusing to debate the fish and power issues, Campbell skillfully painted himself as the steady hand on the tiller needed in these perilous economic times. He was able to do so because NDP leader Carole James could not avoid dealing with the NDP's traditional issues -- social issues -- thus blunting her attack on the economic front.
Campbell knew that his natural constituency did not, at this time at any rate, give a fiddler's wind passing for the homeless, the sick and the lame. His playing the economy card over and over again while refusing to get into other issues, except in a perfunctory way, had the effect of making Ms. James look like a bleeding heart while Campbell appeared as the white knight leading the province out of the economic wilderness.
Will fudged budget melt?
It's hard to criticize James because she obviously had to let her natural constituency know she was carrying their issues onto the battlefield. The end result was that Campbell had absolute control over the issue people wanted to hear about most -- the economy.
What comes next?
We'll see a new budget, which will remind many of the "fudget budget" of the Clark government in 1996, and we'll see a legislature more fractious than ever, which won't matter at all to Mr. Campbell who has, under our system, a four-year dictatorship ahead -- and none play the role of dictator better that he. We will have civil unrest over the rivers issue and when, not if, BC Hydro is broken up and sold. The polarization of our community will match if not exceed those days when Bill Bennett and Dave Barrett spat endless streams of venom at one another.
STV is not to be
Finally, STV. What went wrong?
I can only relate to personal experiences. As a supporter of STV, I was asked to make a speech on its behalf, which I did -- it was before about 100 supporters in a room in the SFU downtown campus. Supporters! I was spending valuable time and energy for nothing!
The STV campaign was obviously taken over by the Bay Street crowd. The last thing British Columbians wanted were lectures from the likes of Andrew Coyne of the Toronto Globe and Mail.
I was asked to do an endorsement for the "yes" side and did so thinking it was for radio ads only to find out, to my horror, that I became part of a telemarketing exercise. I hate that stuff and so, my mail tells me, do a lot of people.
I feel desperately sorry for former MLA Nick Loenen who has put so many years on this project and can only speculate that if he had remained in control it might have turned out differently.
Bottom line? This issue is dead for a decade.
The election itself?
History tells us that in bad times people often turn to the right.
Yesterday was no exception.
Related Tyee stories:
- BC's Clashing Shades of Green
How 'run of river' and global warming are splitting enviros this election. - Plutonic Power CEO denies donating to Libs, then changes story
- Guide to Tyee Election Reporting
You gave. We reported. A round-up of our coverage so far.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
grub
13-05-2009
Losers...
The most significant loss was the lack of electoral reform. BCians missed a chance to rid ourselves of a system that is inherently unfair.
OK, I wasn't convinced that STV was the answer, but surely some form of proportional rep would have been better than what we're stuck with now.
What's to blame for the STV loss? First, it was too complicated to explain; if I can't wrap my brain around it how can I vote for it? Second, I blame the entrenched party operatives who had much to lose from the greater power STV threatened to give individual candidates and 3rd and 4th party candidates, and take away from party machines.
Specifically, I'll point the finger at backroom boys like Thieleman and Schreck. Their ilk had everything to lose from STV and their campaigning reflected their self interest.
I used to respect their opinions. Sorry, they no longer reflect the views of the common man. Sorry, they sold out.
As a trade unionist and natural NDP voter (who supported the notion of a triple-E senate), I'll now turn my back on such opportunists and cast my ballot, no matter what, for the Greens.
driftwolf
13-05-2009
Me, I've lost faith with the
Me, I've lost faith with the system. We elect a dictator for 4 years who gets to use the party whip for every vote. We have allowed a moneyed class to gain control of the system, and the sheep are too stupid to realize they're being fleeced at every turn. We have allowed newspapers to become propaganda arms of those who have usurped our power. My grandfather and great-grandfather fought in wars to give us freedom and choice that we have willingly given up in favour of an illusion of security and honeyed words from lying scum.
I give up. We don't live in a democracy. We live in a lie. I for one will no longer lend any seeming of legitimacy to that lie.
I will no longer be voting.
Let the kings and barons fight it out amongst themselves. Let the oligarchs drain dry the public purse while they force us serfs to pay our ever increasing taxes while giving us less and less in return.
Some day, the people will rise up again and cast off our current aristocracy. But that won't happen in this generation. The plutocrats have gotten very good at convincing the sheep that the is somehow fair. That the sheep actually have a say in how things work. That kind of propaganda is going to take many years to fight.
Now excuse me, I have to get to work so that I have enough money to pay for the massive debt that's being incurred in my name.
grub
13-05-2009
driftwolf has lost faith...
driftwolf: "The plutocrats have gotten very good at convincing the sheep that the [system?] is somehow fair." TOO RIGHT!
I too have lost faith!
I'm no Green (but henceforth will vote that way), but you can't convince me that the 8-9% of the populace who voted Green don't deserve a voice at the table. Never mind the 15% (I'm just guessing) who might have voted Green had they believed the system would actually bother counting their votes.
Disgusting results!
danneau
13-05-2009
What we don't know will certainly hurt us...
The really sad part is that most voters don't really know what is being done and so can't make a sane choice regardless of point of view. As it is, irreparable damage is being done to the ecosphere, the econosphere and the sociosphere as we race to oblivion. I will certainly continue to vote, but without much faith that I will ever see a slate of candidates whose views resemble the picture of fairness that I have in my head. With less than half the registered voters exercising their franchise, it seems cleat that BC is full of people who either think that everything is arranged for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds (the world according to Leonard Asper) or that voting for any of the current parties is a waste of the minimal time and resources it takes to vote. I like Barbara Ehrenreich's recent thought that all those people who no longer have the demands of a job to take up their time devote that time and whatever resources they have to promoting and enacting fundamental change in the way we do things.
morechatter
13-05-2009
A Nail In the Coffin
It hurts you got that right and its going to be hurting a whole lot more as immigration continues to climb at accelerated efforts while the jobless migrate into the city. Well we can get the cry on for sure because jobs, jobs, jobs as in January unprecedented numbers of immigrants come in while record numbers lose there jobs. And interest rates also unprecedented.
Apparently they are trying to get another bubble on but only this time no jobs but they will create that to as it will not be the first time.
http://www.cicnews.com/2009/04/canada-maintain-immigration-levels-2009-requirements-change-04710.html
http://www.immigrationwatchcanada.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=4304
Strong the stench around this province is so strong it makes you wanna puke, oh thats what happened to lunch yesterday, because I just couldn't keep them down. And I feel so bad for it but maybe next time.
seth
13-05-2009
Private Power hell
Gordo over the next couple of years will be doubling our power rates as a result of 100 billion (my guess) or so in IPP purchases at 12 cents a kwh when the spot price remains in the 2 cent a kwh range and everybody else is buying Nukes and southwest desert solar again in the 2 cent range.
The $50 billion in already committed probable IPP loses was never investigated or reported on by somebody with the cred's of Will McMartin or Vaughn Palmer or even the NDP itself.
Rafe you need to check out
http://publicpowerissues.blogspot.com/
To see why the 31 billion is optimistic based on "firm" and not total power purchase commitments.
Will McMartin had a excellent article utterly destroying the NDP's bad ten years myth.
The NDP should have been shouting back McMartin's stats and the IPP losses every time the Libs brought up their economic creds and the NDP record yet Jerry Scott refused to go there. Gordo has no business experience whatsoever yet the NDP let him get away with that. When he did work for a developer 30 years ago he was their political guy and had nothing to do with the core of the business.
Idiots managed that campaign.
That said Canadians vote on image and Carol James has a oh so nice mom type image that will lose every election every time. Carol Taylor, or Larry Campbell had they been NDP leaders would have wiped the floor with the Gordo.
Finally Liberals 41 NDP 44 That would have been the result if the so called "Greens" had confined themselves to supporting STV and stayed out of this election.
In 8 ridings that the Gordo and his gang won the NDP + green vote was greater than the Liberal.
The first task in rebuilding the left is to eradicate the NOT "Green" party from the Canadian electoral scene, leaving it piled on the dung heap of Canadian politics and left to rot in its own irresponsible puerile rhetoric.
cocean
13-05-2009
driftwolf
You're the third person I've heard since last night say they weren't going to vote anymore. Add me to the numbers too.
In a letter to a local paper, I predicted this would happen. I also just submitted an abstract I'd been putting off, for the November conference in Vancouver of the Public Health Association of BC.
My title? "Digging Down Deep: Inclusion and the democratic process."
morechatter
13-05-2009
"Well, my gosh, it may never happen."
http://updates.canadafirst.net/2009/02/canadian-immigration-hotline-january.html
“Everybody really knew that the U.S. real estate market was overbuilt, that it was a bubble. A lot of us raised the issue that this idea that you can compensate for declining income by raising your house prices and you can continue to incur debt — we knew that (system) was going to blow ... but some people said ‘It’s going to happen next year’ and then ‘Well, my gosh, it may never happen.’”
Well it did happen and developers are getting set to try to do it again only the economy is even worst. How many Canadians can sleep on a sidewalk, and how long before they are part of Canadian history?
Martin: somebody has got to point out that this thing blew and the most knowledgeable people in the world — not just bankers but (leaders of) industries, didn’t have a clue that it was going to happen.”
David Lewis
13-05-2009
STV was past its "best before" date
In 2005, fresh memories existed from the two immediately previous elections that called the present electoral system into question. There was the 1996 39.45% of the vote "majority" Clark government that took over the province even though the Liberals got 41.8%. And there was the 2001 57.6% Liberal vote that translated into 77 of 79 MLAs with almost no representation for the 40% or so of the voters who didn't vote Liberal. So there were people from all parts of the spectrum almost freshly cheesed off at FPTP. If it weren't for the inexplicable opposition of the Green Party leadership in 2005, STV would have been the system last night.
Its all water under the bridge now. People started to think about what STV would cause, not what it would fix. Memories of the 1996 problem for the right, and the 2001 problem for the left and the Greens have faded.
You may think you can sell refrigerators to the Inuit a la Ralph Williams, Rafe, given the right campaign manager, but think about this: the right started to wonder if an NDP/Green alliance might keep them from ever gaining power again, and the dreamers in the NDP who want to run a majority government again no matter how long they have to wait can see, that under STV, they'll never have a majority government again, they'll always be in a coalition with someone, as they've never achieved the 50% popular vote an STV system would require at minimum for them to rule.
I loved the STV system when I first studied it, until I saw the Green leadership reject it in 2005 and thereby shoot themselves in the head. I thought, what would these clowns do if they had the balance of power in BC as STV would hand to them? They'd cause chaos. They couldn't even understand that STV was in their interest beyond any other party for four years.
Skywalker
13-05-2009
Right on Rafe!
Anyone who thinks that Campbell's new mandate will be a turning point in the fight against climate change is delusional. Years from now we will be looking at this time as the last time we had the opportunity to save BC for our kids and Campbell will be known as piker who sold off their futures for a few more years to play god.
As for the NDP, they have to stop listening to the media clowns in the hopes they will become acceptable to the corporate sector.
Frank
13-05-2009
Skywalker
"As for the NDP, they have to stop listening to the media clowns in the hopes they will become acceptable to the corporate sector."
That I believe is the problem at party HQ.
grub
13-05-2009
dreamers in the NDP
Nicely put, DavidLewis: "the dreamers in the NDP who want to run a majority government again no matter how long they have to wait...."
Hello! That's you Schreck! That's you Thieleman!
Instead of potential STV NDP-Green coalitions we get Liberals for a very long time.
Thanks, you losers!
mcdull
13-05-2009
BC
We have seen the end of the soft caring BC. Now comes the wild ride to the bottom where everything is privatized. It is the end of BC. Corporate BC won the citizens lost. Time to start the death knell and start the Vancouver Island First Party. As all we will have left for our grandchildren will be farmed salmon and acres of development with no idea of what nature is like.
wondering
13-05-2009
What next?
Yes, I too am very disappointed and deeply saddened to see that Campbell has gotten in again and that our STV chance was thrown out. I too, am gravely concerned about the environmental implications of the majority vote for the neo-liberals -- to me it feels like "the best place on earth' has just been put on the global sacrificial block by a collective of economy terrified people who have been led to believe that giving away our resources is our only way out. The more pressing question now is what do we do?? Not voting ever again is like cutting your nose off to spite your face --extremely ignorant. Maybe its time to resort to general strikes, consumer boycotts, and litigation. Sitting on our self-pitying asses and sucking our thumbs cuz we just got whipped, is not going to improve anything. Time to put on the wondering caps, quick.
grub
13-05-2009
Frank...
Bill (http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/)is apparently no longer accepting comments. Instead, he says "My commitment to ensuring this is a free speech blog is being tested by sore losers".. Move on, he says.
Frank
13-05-2009
mcdull
"Time to start the death knell and start the Vancouver Island First Party."
I like that idea, VI is almost always NDP whereas the mainland is always Socred-Liberal. I'd move to VI in no time if it was a separate province. But I think that new province should include the coast from Jervis Inlet to Prince Rupert too.
Crass
13-05-2009
Rafe: No need to blame
Rafe: No need to blame yourself. It is not a moral failing on your part. It has more to do with being subject to the current economic and political system we live under that produced the results last night. Blaming yourself is playing into the ideological hands of the powers that be: that our personal, social and economic destiny is a direct result of individual characteristics, and has nothing to do with the current economic and political system we operate in. They have already taken over our rivers and economic and political apparatus. Let them not take over our minds too!
Progressives can look inward all they want to see what went wrong during this campaign: split of the progressive vote, ineffective Carole James, "axe the gas tax" policy, global recession, mass media concentration, and on and on.
All of these issues deserve some attention, but I think it would be wise to step back and take an even wider view of things. Why is it that progressive ideas gain traction and get worked into legislation in many Western European and South American countries? Why is it that, of all industrialized countries, it is only in Anglo-Saxon dominated countries like the U.K., U.S., and Canada (perhaps Australia too)progressive ideas rarely get worked into legislation?
As a result, we continually elect an unbalanced legislature on the provincial and federal level. This imbalance feeds on itself and creates more of an economic and power imbalance reflected in legislation.
Crass
13-05-2009
We seem to be stuck in a
We seem to be stuck in a political paradox: the more people get turned off from politics and politicians and don't vote, the more influence 'BIG MONEY' from corporations and the wealthy elite have in controlling our political apparatus. This in turn alienates the average voter even more, turning off even more people from voting, resulting in even more and more influence from people and interests groups that benefit from the status quo. Where will it end?
I believe our 'democracy' is heading for a crisis (if we are not already in one now)due to increasing imbalance in who influences policy in government.
Will we just drift into a dictatorship, like a frog drifts into unconsciousness and ultimately death when the water it is submerged into goes from warm to boiling hot?
Like many commentators here, a part of me is completely cynical and jaded about the political system we live under. A part of me says "This is the last time I will ever vote", or "I'm never voting NDP again in my life." However, I'm astute enough to know that that is exactly what the powers that be WANT. APATHY!
Perhaps the NDP and Green Party should both be dissolved and the best aspects of there policy platforms combined to form a new Progressive Party in BC.
What green voters must realize is that economic equality, I believe, is a PREREQUISITE to a sustainable future. Only when decisions on the stewardship of the ecology is in the hands of the people (democratic control), will we ever be able to act in the interests of an ecologically sustainable future.
For the record, I voted NDP and for the STV.
biscotti
13-05-2009
civil unrest
...is certainly what is needed to stop the privatization of BC Hydro and more run of river projects. Hopefully, channeled into creative forms of direct action. Something the Scotts, Tielmans and Schrecks can't control.
frances
13-05-2009
1917?
You did good, Rafe. You're not responsible for human nature. My father used to embarass me by shouting how people were sheep, then I realized he was right. Most people's first priority is getting that new flat screen TV and if the environment or some goofy moral issue stands in the way, screw it.
What's the solution? Forget the sheep. Herd them into pens & give em their fodder. Then take some direct action and lots of it.
seth
13-05-2009
lewis again
Are you are Luke Skywalker in his latest disguise? Lost the Manitoba thing?
Pirate power costs double public power for the same project because BCHydro can borrow at much lower rates. Site C would be less than half far cheaper than Bute to the public on an annual basis. Site C power stored behind a dam would be much more valuable than Bute. If it decided to, BCHydro could build Bute for half the annual cost that Hydro is paying Plutonic.
Spot power is selling now at 2 cents a kwh and will remain so in the long term with new nuclear solar tech. So BcHydro could buy "green" power for 15% of what it pays Plutonic. In fact since 60% of annual pirate power flows in the spring when BCHydro's dams are full and it is already exporting BCHydro will have to sell pirate output on the spot market at an 85% loss.
Check out the facts at
http://publicpowerissues.blogspot.com/
reallife
13-05-2009
McDull - are you sure?
"I'd move to VI in no time if it was a separate province"
What would you do for power? VI gets its electricity from dams on the mainland that is routed through Tsawwassen (and doesn't that make folks happy!). VI people are against run of the river, windpower and gas fired power plants.
What would you do for heat? VI gets its natural gas from the northeast, via a subsidized gas line from the mainland to the island. VI people are against development of coalbed gas.
What would you do for money? VI relies on government for employment (paid for by the rest of the province).
Who would subsidize your transportation? VI people do not want to pay the cost of ferries.
LeftRightLeft
13-05-2009
NO STV CAMPAIGN ANALYSIS
Someone at the Tyee or another independent media outlet should do a proper analysis of the No-STV Campaign and Tieleman's involvement. Now he's blathering on about the need for mandatory voting.
Let me get this straight - so we reject measures to improve the perceived value of individual votes and enhance legislative negotiation, then we force everyone to participate in a process they consider to be blatantly useless. Great way to increase civic engagement!
And people on the left still consider this guy one of their spokespersons?!?!
Frank
13-05-2009
realife
"What would you do for power?
What would you do for heat?
..."
Are you saying Van Island would be kicked out of Confederation and no trade would be allowed due to some sort of pan-North American embargo?
Frank
13-05-2009
LeftRightLeft
"And people on the left still consider this guy one of their spokespersons?!?!"
Some of us stopped doing that when he came out against the federal Libs and NDP forming a Coalition gov't. He agreed with the arguments of the Reform Party.
Others are slowly coming around to this view too I think.
VivianLea Doubt
13-05-2009
What Frank said...
and more of what wondering said.
It hurts, it hurts really bad, and we gotta get to work...
OilbertaRedTory
13-05-2009
85 Members of the BC Legislative Assembly ...
... according to the wisdom of the BC electorate :
Conservative - 0 [ ~ 2% counted voters]
Green - 3 seats [ ~ 8% counted voters]
New Dem -19 seats [ ~ 42% counted voters]
Liberals - 21 seats [ ~ 46% counted voters]
Empty seats - 42 [ ~ 50% / absent ]
Democracy is a verb, not an adjective.
Canada has stopped democratising.
What a pity.
grub
13-05-2009
On Tieleman...
"And people on the left still consider this guy one of their spokespersons?!?!"
He lost me when it became obvious (I'm a slow learner) that he was a proponent of the status quo and the "I'm a backroom operative and know what's good for the party, and the rest of the populace are just dumb sheep to herded when the cause needs them to be herded..." way of thinking.
No more buddy! This sheep ain't being herded no more.
grub
13-05-2009
ditto Frank
"Some of us stopped doing that when he came out against the federal Libs and NDP forming a Coalition gov't."
Once more some NDP party hack (Bill T)living in a delusional state thinking that the party might, on its own, form a government - minority, much less majority. The NDP needs a coalition. Right now it needs to work with the Greens. That means, it needs to find some way to get Greens to the table.
Instead of bleating about how Greens should have voted NDP strategically, I don't recall any NDP candidates volunteering to abstain and turn all their support over to excellent Green candidates.
Coalitions cut both ways, guys.
verso
13-05-2009
...
"Someone at the Tyee or another independent media outlet should do a proper analysis of the No-STV Campaign and Tieleman's involvement."
Why? I didn't vote with Teilman's on STV and I don't always agree with his political analysis but from what I can tell Tielman ran a fair and above the board campaign. It wasn't a secret that he was in charge of the No side, so just what are you accusing him of?
I've also heard the Yes side raised 200,000 additional dollars to campaign with while the no side raised only 20,000. The only lawn signs and buttons I saw were for the Yes side.
Do you believe there would've been a different outcome if someone other than Bill was running the No side?
Maybe the analysis should be why was STV rejected, not once, but twice by the electorate.
verso
13-05-2009
for the record...
I voted no the previous election and yes in this one.
cghzd
13-05-2009
Nice people don't win! They
Nice people don't win! They end up with tire tread marks all over their forehead as in Carol James case.
Campbell knew he could run all over her long before the election started.
The NDP should have gone outside BC for someone to run their Campaign strategy.
A guy like James Carville, who ran Bill Clinton's campaign, knows what down and dirty is all about might have engineered the screwing over of Gordo and the rest of the bums so richly deserved.
Not to worry though, Gordo and a few of his ex thugs might end in up in jail before his term is out.
Half the people in BC are functionally illiterate the other half don't give a fiddlers F@#$%% about politics ( it takes too much brain power and they might have to form an opinion about something)as witnessed in a less than 50% turn out.
Stop crying in your beer these bastards will get their own soon.
Clawman
13-05-2009
glooming
Enough with the morbid post-election despair, loss of faith, handwringing, and generalized apocalypticism! Where was all this energy and bluster when it was needed, out on the campaign trail where our futures are being decided? Its Civics 101--we are the government, we decide. Not the BIg Media, Big Business, Big Backroom but the Big Us, and half of us stayed home rather than vote, out of some misbegotten sense of powerlessness. You have as much power as you want to grasp, but if you don't reach out, you can't complain if you end up empty-handed.