B.C. by-election Wednesday to decide if the un-elected Premier of British Columbia gets a seat in legislature

One incredibly obvious plant was from a woman named Anna Lilly.

I'm rarely going to be in perfect agreement with Alex Tsakumis on any topic but here for the first time ever I'm linking to a piece Alex has written as he describes the scene recently at a wholly contrived "town hall" meeting for B.C. Liberal candidate Christy Clark:

As moderator, INCREDIBLY, was a fellow named Steve Kukucha. Now, full disclosure, I've known Kukucha since we were classmates in French Literature at UBC in the 80s and I consider him a friend. But his appearance was stunning.

No, not just because he's another staunch federal Liberal, part of the Marrisen set that brought you spineless Paul Martin, but because he is an Independent Power Project (IPP) executive, with, at one point, TEN LICENCES up for approval.

Clark actually had the incredible temerity, the unmitigated gall to stand there and answer questions about the environment and how she cared about the flora and fauna of sensitive streams-much like The Blessed Mother Teresa did about Calcutta's poor, all while seated two feet and hosted by a guy whose companies stand to make GAZILLIONS in profits on schemes that the B.C. Utilities Commission have declared "an answer to a non-existent problem."

It's a long piece but well worth the read if you are looking for reasons to block her election. Even if you happen to support Clark, maybe you'll feel a little bit of justifiable shame.

Lately elections have been mostly won by those who do their level best to pervert the democratic process and this saddens me. Isn't about time we all said we won't support any politician - of any party or political stripe - that willingly works away at undermining the democratic process, demeaning the very meaning of democracy? What's wrong with telling the truth and letting the chips fall as they may? We can handle the truth.

Clearly democracy in Canada isn't a sexy enough topic to base a winning election campaign upon because those who have tried have failed. But maybe as an issue it's enough to cause the fall of one: Christy Clark.

I am neither a fan nor an enemy of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Properly introduced, a consumption tax has its place in the arsenal of government.

I am however completely opposed to the duplicitous means by which the Gordon Campbell government introduced the tax, and mislead British Columbians during the 2009 provincial election campaign.

Recently in the Georgia Strait Premier Campbell tries to defend himself. See the link for the article and comments made by myself and others in response.

The bottom line: It was impossible for Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen to not know anything of the extent of the economic pressures facing B.C. during the May 2009 election. Much of the revenue of any government can be modelled and all of it can be measured. Income tax revenue, resource revenue, taxation from other sales - all of these items could be viewed in an extremely negative light throughout the second half of 2008 and first half of 2009 up to and including the election campaign.

Only an idiot would believe a politician that claimed "we didn't know". Only a liar would try to make such a claim.

Regardless of what one's opinion is of the HST, who can claim to stand up for democracy while at the same time reward and support this liar of a Premier and government? I can't.

From the it couldn't happen to a more worthy guy department:

The Globe and Mail reports in Anti-HST campaign grows in strength that petitioners operating under B.C.'s citizen driven initiative laws have almost completed gathering sufficient signatures - with plenty of time remaining before the deadline - to force the B.C. government's hand if they go ahead with the roll out of the Harmonized Sales Tax as planned for June 1. See where your riding stands at the Fight HST campaign progress report page.

You can feel it in the streets here, public anger goes far beyond the HST itself. This issue, like the campaign to oust David Emerson back in 2006, has touched people in B.C. in a way that defies party lines. So many are angry not just at the HST but at the underhanded, undemocratic, way in which it came to be this government's leading priority, immediately after an election during which it was discussed not once.

In this regard Campbell took a page from Stephen Harper's book of tricks. During the 2008 election, which by Harper's own fixed election date law should never have been called, Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty repeatedly said that Canada would not go into deficit spending. A couple weeks after the election, both announced that of course, Canada would be digging the country deeper into debt through significant deficit spending. Conservatives will argue that the circumstances forced a change in direction, but nothing could be further from the truth, as data from the Ministry of Finance clearly showed (when released after the election) that the Harper government had already pushed Canada deep into deficit spending at a rate never before seen in the prior decade, before the election call of 2008.

Campbell, like Harper, was willing to lie by omission. Hiding significant material facts or plans from the public in order to win votes and grab power is no different than lying through your teeth to buy votes.

Were Campbell and Harper regulated like the national securities regulator that federal finance Minister Flaherty is about to push onto the provinces, both would be in gross violation of securities (electoral) law for not disclosing these material facts to investors (voters).

Why do we insist upon one standard of ethics for corporations, but settle for a much looser set of ethics and morals out of our politicians?

Gordon Campbell has painted himself into a corner from which he cannot escape. He can't back down, without giving those who oppose him or the GST a very public victory. Pushing ahead with the HST despite the citizen-driven initiative will further weaken his support in the province and will be a big factor in fuelling to completion what will probably be the very first successful MLA recall campaigns in this country's history. Given the ease with which some ridings were able to achieve the necessary numbers for the HST petition, with plenty of margin for safety, it would not be hard to envision a great many Liberal MLA's being forced to resign and run again in by-elections. That would be a great moment in the history of Canada's democracy.

Fight the HST.

And then we must make B.C.'s recall legislation work for the very first time by forcing the resignation of Premier Gordon Campbell, Finance Minister Colin Hansen, and recalling any other member of the B.C. legislature who continues to stand up for the HST given the duplicitous manner in which it was introduced.

Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice wants to turn our beautiful, abundantly productive, west coast from this:

... into this:

... or this:

Globe and Mail, Friday May 6 2010 -- Environment Minister Jim Prentice says there is no need for a moratorium on future offshore drilling in Canadian waters while the world tries to figure out what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill of thousands of barrels of crude a day into the Gulf, and the environmental devastation that now threatens the Louisiana shore, have prompted other governments to put future drilling on hold, even if it could mean higher energy prices.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a moratorium on future oil drilling permits off the state's coast until it can be determined that a disaster similar to the one in the Gulf of Mexico can be avoided. [And U.S. President Barak Obama has put new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on hold as well.]

But Mr. Prentice sees no need to follow the example set south of the border.

"I don't think the answer is a moratorium,"the minister told reporters on Thursday. "We are all appalled by what we are seeing in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone is worried about that. Here in Canada, we've not had those kinds of incidents and that's because of the strong regulatory environment that we have had with the National Energy Board (NEB)."

Canada hasn't had the sorts of incidents the U.S. and other nations has had only because our offshore oil industry is tiny by comparison. When you increase the rig count and number of areas being exploited, and increase the outbound tanker traffic, the probability of a serious accident increases as well.

The U.S. takes its coastal environment very seriously. If they can't get it right, 100% of the time, then how are we - relatively green to offshore oil and gas production - to be expected to get it right, 100% of the time?

Minister Prentice ought to know that Canada has quite enough environmental disasters on land, and our track record of managing our oceans is far from laudable. We should not sell out our coast for a fistful of dollars.

Heard this morning: Harper/CPC spin that we "can't be having an election every year just because the Liberals want one".

Uh, no, it was Harper who called the last one, because he wanted to get one last election in before the economic poop hit the fan.

Of course some of us more alert types had already warned that Canada was rapidly sinking deeper in debt with Harper and Flaherty at the helm, even if the Finance Ministry games with words were still hiding it during campaign 08, only to own up to the badness a few short weeks after the polls closed.

Incidentally the BC "conservatives", Premier Gordon Campbell's mis-named "BC Liberals", pulled the same fast one this year too. You can see the movie playing in your head - finance officials chasing Campbell and Finance minister Colin Hansen down the halls of the BC Legislature, with Campbell and Hansen running away with their hands covering their ears "we can't hear you! Talk to us after the election!"

Like Harper and Flaherty in fall '08, Campbell and Hansen lied in spring '09. BC revenue was tanking long before spring 08 and oil and gas revenues could easily be forecast, before the spring election, to continue to remain low for many months if not a year or two. Both should be recalled for gross incompetence / wilful negligence in the discharge of their duties, or for outright lying to the public.

Maybe the average Jill and Joe don't pay attention to the minutia of BC and Federal finance reports like political junkies like me, but I'm sure most Canadians have the good sense to sense they've been lied to.

Why not change the game and promise, and actually deliver on the promise, to do government better?

I'm tired of being lied to (in the quest for seat count) and I'm tired of politicians and political ops banking on being able to spin and slide things past the everyday attention span of Canadians.

There is very little "democratic" (in the purest sense of the word, by, of, and for the people) in our current political tapestry and public discourse. A huge injection of openness and transparency and an elevated level of public discussion is needed.

Given Rafe Mair led three different Ministries in the Socred party from which the current B.C. Liberal Party originated, it is tempting to say "wow", but really this is no surprise to me (and I do not mean that in a pejorative sense):

Ex-Socred cabinet minister Rafe Mair declares that he will vote NDP (Charlie Smith, Georgia Straight, Feb 25, 2009)

When I was in government (1975-80) I was Minister, first, for Consumer and Corporate Affairs. During that time I passed more consumer legislation than anyone before or since including licensing Car dealers (with six of them in caucus setting their collective hair on fire) forced the Banks to acknowledge and obey BC laws for the first time, forced serious reporting changes to the Vancouver Stock Exchanges for which they have never forgiven me, licensed Travel Agents and made them create a fund to bring home passengers stranded by bankrupt charter companies and so on.

As Environment Minister I stopped the government killing of wolves, stopped exploration for and mining of uranium and went to Seattle and negotiated the saving of the Skagit River from a raising of the Ross Dam which Seattle was permitted to do under a 1941 deal with the BC government.

As Minister of Health I brought in the Homecare program and Palliative Care.

I tell you all these things because there is no way in the world I could have ever done these things for the public of BC had Gordon Campbell been Premier.

The political ground has shifted dramatically and the present day version of the old Socreds is, I think, the party Carole James leads. I know that there are supporters of Ms James that are hard line lefties just as when I was with Bill Bennett there were supporters and indeed members of Caucus who were near fascists. That sort of thing will always happen in a two party system. Rafe Mair

Ticking away far away from the headlines of economic doom is an important issue which Rafe has taken up as his cause: assuring B.C. forever has independent control over its energy and water policy. Making Hydro, its future, and our access to environmentally responsible, inexpensive, energy an election issue sounds like a fine idea to me.

Maybe Mr. Mair's long-held views against the coastal salmon farming industry will surface in this election too.

Vancouver Sun education columnist Janet Steffenhagen writes: Is the premier playing favourites?

Four more Vancouver schools have been promised benefits from the Neighbourhoods of Learning project, but other districts are still waiting to hear what's in it for them.

Last month, a ministry official wrote to the Vancouver board of education offering to include Douglas, Kitchener, Sexsmith and Secord elementary schools in the NoL program. It's not clear what that means since these four will not be part of the pilot project, but they have submitted wishlists, as requested, for ministry consideration.

For the record our school, Sir James Douglas Elementary - in Vancouver, not the identically named school in Victoria - submitted a detailed requirements gap analysis, not a "wishlist".

The analysis determined where the Ministry of Education's Ministry Area Standards (attached) fail to recognize and meet the needs of a large, middle-school like, elementary school. The school community came together to analyse what was additionally required on top of the MAS to deliver all the programming Douglas currently provides. Completely devoid of any wishlist items, the factual and unemotional document ran on some 13 pages.

Its telling of the existing B.C. Seismic Mitigation Program and school capital funding process that at no time does anyone connected with MEd or the Vancouver School Board even pretend to undertake the analysis the school community ultimately had to do themselves. Yet, unbelievably, MEd funds school replacement projects without ever having contemplated actual on the ground requirements. Local boards of education are instead forced by MEd to use a simplistic cookie-cutter approach where quite literally what defines a school project is looked up in a table based on headcount alone.

Indeed the capital funding formula and processes have been broken for many years. Notwithstanding the past, given the recent communication from MEd to the Vancouver School Board I remain hopeful that we are witnessing something of a sea change in Victoria's attitude towards funding school seismic safety upgrade and replacement projects. Yet as optimistic as I'd like to be, its impossible not to note the sudden shift in attitudes towards funding school capital projects has arrived just as a civic election is about to conclude, and a provincial election is about to start.

Elections B.C.'s website seems unable to handle a by-election in two ridings:

Imagine how badly they can screw up the provincial general election next May.

The geek in me comes out at times like this. The open source (RedHat Linux, Apache, PHP) server behind www.elections.bc.ca is housed in Regina, not in B.C., and is serviced by SaskTel.

Last year, Ipsos Reid asked Conservatives in B.C. their top priority for finding new energy; 53 per cent supported wind and solar, 30 per cent said pursue more efficiency and only 11 per cent chose going after new oil sources, like the tar sands. The same poll found 71.7 per cent of Conservative voters wanted a ban on oil tankers close to shore. David Beers, ‘Tankers on the B.C. coast are getting too close for comfort’ – The Globe and Mail April 28 2007

So why isn’t Stephen Harper listening? Does father really know better?

Or is it because he has outstanding IOUs and is beholden to key oil and gas patch supporters of various Conservative MP’s, cabinet ministers, and Harper himself, including former EnCana president and CEO Gwyn Morgan.

Oil Tankers in B.C. coastal waters?

IOU or not, EnCana is directly woven into this story. Under Morgan’s leadership, the company initiated a move which would see the coastal B.C. town of Kitimat have its port turned into an import terminal for certain oil liquids that are used in the Alberta tar sands extraction process – liquids which are in extremely short supply due to the phenomenal growth of that particular environmental disaster.

To get the stuff to its destination, a pipeline would need to be built across British Columbia to northern Alberta, and that project alone is one for concern as any pipeline built to Alberta will have a twin returning back to B.C. carrying import liquids to the tar sands and tar sands extracts for export to the U.S. west coast or Asia.

Enbridge is planning to build two pipelines in a single corridor — one to transport over 400,000 barrels of petroleum per day from Alberta to the B.C. coast, and the other to carry over 150,000 barrels of condensate (a by-product of gas production, which is used to thin oil for easier transport by pipeline) per day from the coast to Alberta. From the new tanker terminal in Kitimat, oil would then be shipped to refineries in California, China and other Asia Pacific markets.

The Gateway Pipeline would be the largest petroleum pipeline development in North America in more than 50 years, and one of the largest private infrastructure investments in B.C.’s history. All told, the pipeline would increase Canada’s trade opportunities and enhance B.C.’s reputation as an international gateway. Anna Grimes, Vancouver Board of Trade June 27 2006

In short, Kitimat will become something akin to the Valdez Alaska Oil Terminal which is operated by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian engineering firm active in oil and gas pipeline and infrastructure projects, has done millions of dollars of work for Alyeska (a pipeline and port operator) and has been involved in billions of dollars of pipeline construction in North American and around the world. Gwyn Morgan is on the board of directors of SNC-Lavalin.

LNG import terminals: ticking time bombs

Kitimat may not only have to contend with oil condensates and bitumen or synthetic crude traveling in and out of its port—there are companies (Galveston LNG, Kitimat LNG) right now trying to get approval to build a time-bomb of a facility, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gassification import terminal, at Kitimat, for the sole purpose of shipping natural gas imported from overseas to the United States. And of course, another petro-fuel terminal, means more pipelines.

Calgary-based Galveston LNG is hopeful of receiving regulatory approval by late May for the “loop” pipeline that would supply substantial volumes of regasified gas to consumers in Alberta, according to a senior company official. “The pipeline will have an initial potential to supply 500 million cubic feet per day,” said Thom Dawson, senior vice-president of Galveston. “Depending on the gas sales and purchase agreements, it can go up to 1.7 billion cubic feet per day.” Estimated to cost $1 billion, the project will entail the construction of a roughly 300— kilometre, 36-inch-diameter pipeline from Kitimat in B.C. to Station Four, north of Sumas, a compressor station and isolation valves. The facility will be built on a 50:50 partnership between Kitimat LNG, wholly-owned by Galveston, and Vancouver-based Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. Both firms have formed Pacific Trail Pipelines Ltd. Partnership to develop a natural gas transmission line. Week in Review, April 3–9, www.albertaoilmagazine.com

If the gas is destined for the U.S., why build the plant in Canada you ask?

There are a number of reasons ranging from location to world wide shipping lines, to the EnCana/Enbridge desire to establish an oil and condensate export/import terminal, but frequently overlooked as a significant factor to the current attractiveness of Canada for such projects is that political activism here isn’t as effective, and there are governments in B.C., Alberta, and Ottawa who are so pro oil and gas development they breath butane instead of oxygen. Harper made his intentions clear last fall at a dinner meeting of the Economic Club of New York when he labelled Canada as an emerging energy “superpower”.

The Kitimat LNG project last year received one of several approvals needed befpre it can proceed. Its interesting that any project destined to increase Canada’s share of world wide greenhouse gas emissions (natural gas is a euphemistic alternative name for methane which molecule for molecule has ten times the climate change impact of carbon dioxide – CO2 – and, when used as a fuel, produces significant amounts of CO2 emissions) could receive a positive environmental assessment. Did that assessment consider the GHG component? While John Baird and his predecessor Rona Ambrose try to look green, out the back door their ministry has been approving projects like Emerson’s gateway-linked expansion of Delta Port despite community opposition which submitted environmental assessments of their own that countered the official government story.

What can be done?

Whether we choose to be aware or admit it or not, the fact is that dependence on fossil fuels has much to do with the state of the planet in ecological, political, and military terms. We are all willing or unwilling or uninformed accomplices. Particularly in North America, which has the lions share of world wealth, consumes more than 1/4 of the annual energy production of the entire planet, yet has barely more than 4 percent of the globe’s population, we have a lot to answer for. But our current political leadership only wants to to more of the same, and in fact wants to ramp it up.

What can be done? Take personal responsibility first for your own role, but don’t stop there.

Activism works. Common sense and public outcry resulted in California refusing to authorize exactly such a plant that international mining giant BHP Billiton wanted to build, although a number of other companies continue to lobby various west coast states for permission to proceed. A map showing proposed projects in BC south to California is available here .(PDF)

California activists have had some success but their terminator governor continues to say he supports LNG terminal projects despite his own government pulling the plug on two projects. See: http://www.coastaladvocates.com/ and http://www.lngwatch.com/

Lack of public awareness and action has resulted in a natural salmon fishery that is on its way to being as dead as the east coast cod waters. We can’t allow the prevailing culture of business at any cost to the environment and people continue to drive us into a future that looks more and more like a Mad Max rerun.

Our group has committed to holding members from any party to account if they fail to do their duty for our democracy. Communique >

While campaigning for office Gordon Campbell once promised voters a “fixed legislative calendar.” With no fear of facing the electorate any time soon, Premier Campbell this year decided to break that promise. Despite having both an obligation and the power to open the legislature for a fall sitting, Campbell chose to slam the doors shut, having imperiously declared that there was nothing to talk about in British Columbia.

Nothing to talk about? No issues to discuss? Does Premier Campbell live in a vacuum where time no longer ticks? Perhaps his watch has stopped moving, but our province has not.

187 days, 21 hours and 3 minutes have passed since the legislature last sat in session. That’s 4,509 hours and 3 minutes, or 270,543 minutes, or 16,232,580 seconds. That’s over half a year gone by during which issues important to British Columbians have not been taken up in a single debate in this parliamentary chamber.

Today’s one-day session is crass political theatre, not real democracy.

Mr. Campbell is quoted as disdainfully equating the parliamentary process as nothing but “busy work.” It’s time that legislators from both sides of the house remind Campbell of his real job responsibilities, and demand of the Premier that he fulfill his promises to run an open and transparent government with a fixed legislative calendar. If you do not, we will.

There are numerous issues which need open debate, and every government requires the bright light of scrutiny to keep them on the right track. Campbell shut the legislature down for purely partisan political reasons. It certainly was not closed in the best interests of British Columbians.

David Emerson found out what a committed group of citizens could do to his political future. Stay tuned, we are far from done and B.C. politics is, as hunters might say, a target rich environment.