There is hope. All candidates vying to replace the genuinely boneheaded Carole James say they'll ditch her "axe the tax" opposition to carbon taxation. About bloody time.
“I think we made a mistake in the last election. We as a party got it wrong,” said Mike Farnworth, speaking during an all-candidate debate this weekend in Vancouver.
“We were out of touch with the majority of British Columbians and I think that is one of the key reasons why we lost the last election.”
The New Democrats’ aggressive opposition to the carbon tax in the period leading up to the 2009 election upset many NDP supporters and outraged many environmental activists, including David Suzuki.
7 comments:
i watched on line and we have had a potluck and meetup with each of them
here on SSI
It will be difficult to choose but i think for environmentalists it will be between Horgan and Farnham
i was impressed with every candidate
correction, Farnworth and Horgan
I think the axe the tax had to do with the BCNDP trying to fight the image the bc "liberal" media, and propaganda machine paint of the NDP of taxing everything. I'm not against a carbon tax, but isn't bc's carbon tax ineffective and not going towards green policies anyways? No one thinks about the carbon tax, the gas tax that is. Gas is already taxed. The government needs to support alternatives to driving single occupancy vehicles. Instead of investing in real transit, they spend money to build more highways and bridges. They remove land from the ALR. Etc, etc etc. I get pissed off at how the media portrays the campbell "liberals" (sorry I have to put quotations around that) as champions for the environment because of this small gas tax, despite all their environmentally damaging policies. The environmentalists made a big mistake backing the Campbell "liberals".
Well Anon at least we agree that the BC Liberals are entirely Liberal In Name Only. And, yes, they are a horrid and corrupt bunch but this isn't about them. This is about the NDP under their former, utterly boneheaded leader.
Farnworth was serious, the NDP "got it wrong" and were out of touch with the people of British Columbia. That's the issue. Forget the relativism with the Il-liberals.
We Progressives share this disorder. We like to point fingers and castigate the Right instead of devoting our attention and energies into something we can change for the better, for everyone, ourselves. Our focus has to be on making ourselves as good and clear-headed and worthy of leadership as we can. That's our job and it's the only one that is going to make a real difference at the end of the day.
I think we agree on more then that, I am just not as good as putting it into writing as you are. I do agree that the Carole James NDP was out of touch, I just felt they were less out of touch then Gordo(which didn't become apparent to the general population until slightly after the last election apparently). I hope they (the BCNDP) get it right this time.
One interesting thing about Campbell stepping down when he did is that the Liberals have some opportunity to improve their governance, and don't have to call an election for some time. One of the wisest moves on his part.
The NDP are in a tough spot. I think the best place to focus is on the relationship between the province and municipalities. Municipalities need more options to tax, but, in rural areas, also need direct aid, as their industrial tax base disintegrates.
BC should be transferring both money, methods of taxation, and certain provincial responsibilities down the local level.
That's a real, worthwhile populist policy. Not fake "axe the tax" garbage.
I'm not sure the demographic reality of BC makes that sort of devolution practical. If the province was to transfer taxing powers to cities, for example, it would be the smaller communities that would feel the pain.
Larger populations more cohesively and densely situated (as in Europe) provide more options for this sort of thing. We lack most of those advantages and that leaves us dependent on more centralized government. We would risk creating something akin to "gated communities" only on a municipal or regional scale. I have trouble imagining what sort of provincial responsibilities could be decentralized to municipalities without giving rise to disparities.
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