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BC's May 2013 Election Starts Now

Lib leadership candidates already signaling they endorse Campbell's record.

Rafe Mair 26 Jan 2011TheTyee.ca

Rafe Mair's column runs every second Monday on The Tyee. Find his previous Tyee columns here and more of his writings on The Common Sense Canadian.

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Outgoing premier Gordon Campbell: who will be distancing themselves from his decisions?

[Editor's note: An editorial fumble caused Rafe's column to be delayed from Monday to today. Apologies for the wait!]

Sitting as I am in the middle of the Indian Ocean (actually I'm in a stateroom on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean) I'm getting a better feel for what issues will capture the interest of voters in the run-up to the election of 2013.

Sometimes, I must admit, I wonder if I've been living on another planet trying to make some sense out of what I'm seeing in British Columbia. Is it true that British Columbians don't care about the destruction of their wild salmon, the loss of farmland and the desecration of their rivers?

Can it be true that people don't mind their rivers being destroyed and their wildlife devastated so that large companies can make power that BC Hydro must pay two times the export price for, even though the vast majority of that power is surplus to BC Hydro's needs at the time it's generated? Don't people understand that sending "oil" from the tar sands by pipeline through B.C. to be taken by tanker down our treacherous coast does not create risks but certainties waiting to happen?

Will the Liberals be able to get away with the privatizing of BC Hydro, then, by an amazing coincidence, be spared from giving evidence spawned by this loathsome cover-up?

One can be certain that no Liberal leadership candidate will mention any of these matters even though they were all in cabinet at the time these decisions were made. Their leadership convention will undoubtedly have a dinner to praise the record of Gordon "Pinocchio" Campbell. The man who has wreaked havoc in our environment, in allegiance and footstep with the Fraser Institute, will be feted for gutting the democratic process, suppressing any sign of dissent and micromanaging and will join the likes of Robert Mugabe as a heroic figure.

Can New Dems heal?

What will come out of the NDP leadership convention?

I doubt very much that there will be a dinner honouring Carole James -- if one was planned I doubt if she would attend.

What sort of policy will emerge?

Most NDP stalwarts want to protect what's left of the environment and repair what can repaired. Their problem is that their perennially splintered party must unite, or at least look united. Carole James, though wobbly from time to time, did try to make the environment an issue in 2009 but was scuppered by a campaign that seemed to me to have a death wish for her.

Parties trying to heal within are not noted for strong platforms on controversial issues.

The absence of the environment as an issue is terrifying and, for this, the mainstream media bears much of the blame. The issues I have raised have been all but untouched. Will this change?

I see no evidence that it will.

Greens and other third parties

What about a third party in the field?

The Green Party has the platform, a good leader and good prospective candidates. The problem is that the voters see them as a one issue party no matter how hard they try to seem otherwise. They will take voters away from the NDP but will not elect an MLA.

The Conservative Party is a no-hoper. The political vacuum in BC is at the centre. Any votes they attract will be at the Liberals' expense.

What about the BC First Party? They are not to be easily brushed aside especially if their pro term leader, Chris Delaney, can persuade Gordon Wilson to come aboard. Delaney has changed over the years and though that might be seen as cynical I don’t think so. The issues I have raised have, coincidentally, affected Delaney. He looks more and more like the old Social Credit Party every day.

The next election is on

Why am I raising these issues so long before the next election?

Because the platforms, or lack of them, should frame much of the debate from here until May 14, 2013.

I appreciate the fact that the mainstream media has avoided these issues like the plague. I spend much of my time traveling the province raising these issues and I believe they are of considerable concern. At The Common Sense Canadian myself and my colleagues will be speaking and writing about these issues full time.

If they don't become part of the general debate it will not be I who loses, for I'm pretty long in the tooth.

It will, however, deal a mortal blow to our province.  [Tyee]

Read more: Politics, Elections

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