Weaver Wished He'd Been Offered NDP Slot: Byers

Interviewed in The Tyee yesterday, Andrew Weaver said that his candidacy presents a "threat" to the BC NDP. Yet in the same interview, he admitted that he wants the BC NDP to win the provincial election.

Then, in a piece in The Huffington Post, Andrew wrote that he joined the Green Party, "not because I was yearning for power, or willing to parse the truth and join in the hyper-partisan spin of the major parties," but "because it is the only party to consistently support climate action."

What a load of horse manure! The truth is: Andrew joined the Green Party because he was not offered the BC NDP nomination in Oak Bay-Gordon Head on a plate.

Last December, Andrew revealed that he and I had had a confidential (or so I had thought) conversation shortly after he had announced his intention to run for the Green Party in the Victoria-area riding. With that confidence broken, let me tell you what he said.

First, some context: I had telephoned Andrew because, just a few months earlier, he had endorsed Tom Mulcair's candidacy for the leadership of the federal NDP. I had likewise supported Tom because of his demonstrated commitment to the environment, which included resigning on environmental principle from a cabinet position in the Quebec government.

Andrew had also taken part in an informal relationship-building effort between the BC NDP and environmental leaders after the 2009 provincial election. That process contributed to Adrian Dix's ultimately opposing the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.

A number of prominent environmentalists have influenced the BC NDP platform. George Heyman, the executive director of the Sierra Club of BC, went so far as to contest a hard-fought nomination in Vancouver Fairview. Climate campaigner Tzeporah Berman and SFU climate policy expert Mark Jaccard have publicly endorsed the BC NDP.

Weaver's regret

So I was more than a little surprised when Andrew declared for the Green Party last September.

Not to worry, Andrew assured me, the BC NDP will win the election in a landslide. He said that he would not have declared for the Green Party if he thought the election would be close.

Andrew then expressed regret that the BC NDP had nominated their candidate in Oak Bay-Gordon Head a year earlier, in Sept. 2011, thus precluding him from running in his home riding for them.

Now, as the polls tighten in the run-up to election day, Andrew insists that support for the BC Liberals has collapsed on southern Vancouver Island and Oak Bay-Gordon Head is a race between the BC NDP and the Green Party.

Yet Oak Bay-Gordon Head has long been a battlefield between the BC NDP and successive right-wing parties, with Jessica Van der Veen (who is running again) coming within 600 votes of defeating BC Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong last time round.

Vote-splitting spoiler of NDP chances?

It is entirely possible that Andrew Weaver could become the Chris Turner of BC politics -- with Turner being the Green Party candidate who split the anti-Harper vote in the Calgary Centre federal by-election last November, allowing an unpopular Conservative, Joan Crockatt, to win.

Andrew's candidacy might also be helping to create vote splits in other ridings. The Green Party captured 11 per cent of the vote in Saanich North and the Islands in the last election, as compared to 44 per cent for the BC NDP (who were just 0.8 per cent behind the Liberals). Although environmentalist Gary Holman is running again for the BC NDP, the riding could stay with the Liberals -- thanks to a stronger Green Party performance.

It is conceivable that Andrew Weaver could be the decisive factor in re-electing Christy Clark, thus opening the door to bitumen pipelines and tankers on our coast.

It is wrong for Andrew to pretend the risk does not exist. It is wrong to try to have your cake and eat it too.

This is not about Andrew Weaver's concern for the environment. If anything, it is about his ego.