Back when the BC Liberals ran this province they introduced a carbon tax. A small gesture, to be sure, but it aligned the province with Washington and California.
The provincial NDP, the party of the people? They weren't having it. Their members needed their trucks and SUVs, not extra taxes on gas at the pump.
Since then we've seen Alberta's outgoing premier, Rachel Notley, don the armour and sword of a true petro-warrior, threatening Ottawa and British Columbia alike in her desperate bid to keep the oil patch happy.
And now we have an NDP government in British Columbia that also desperate to cling to power has accommodated the Green MLA's who hold the balance of power, something that translates into, for now, opposition to the Justin Trudeau Memorial Pipeline.
We haven't seen the NDP tackle coal but they have shown a willingness to join forces with the BC Liberal adversaries on promoting LNG, liquid natural gas.
That has led BC Green Party leader and climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, to accuse Horgan's NDP government of committing a "generational sellout."
“Continuing to push for LNG development is short-sighted and works directly against CleanBC objectives,” Weaver stated in a party news release. “After years of criticizing the B.C. Liberals for their generous giveaway of our natural gas resources, the B.C. NDP have taken the giveaway to a whole new level. The legislation brought forward by this government is a generational sellout.
“We have only identified a pathway to take us only 75 percent of our 2030 emissions goals, yet we know that LNG Canada will emit an additional 3.45 megatonnes of greenhouse gases every year within our province alone, contributing massively to this gap," Weaver continued. "Government is demonstrating hypocrisy by supporting both LNG and CleanBC. They want to have their cake and eat it, too."The NDP responded with the, by now standard, weasel words.
Finance Minister Carole James, on the other hand, insisted that this legislation will benefit the province.
“British Columbians are counting on us to attract LNG investment that meets strict conditions: delivering jobs and financial benefits to B.C., creating economic partnerships with Indigenous peoples, and protecting our clean air, land and water,” she said in a news release. “This legislation completes the process of creating a fiscal framework that invites investment while supporting those conditions.”Oh, Carole. She was a bullshitter when she was opposition leader and now, as finance minister, she's the same old bullshitter.
Peter McCartney, climate campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, has accused Premier John Horgan of "talking out of both sides of his mouth on climate change".
“British Columbians are all doing their part to cut carbon pollution while at the same time he’s giving $6 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to construct the most polluting project in the province,” McCartney said in a news release.It doesn't matter if it's Notley or Horgan or Jagmeet Singh. You cannot trust the NDP to show any spine when it comes to climate change. They talk a good game but when it's crunch time they're just bullshitters.
If our BC natural gas is good enough to export as LNG, why don't we use it here?
ReplyDeleteDon't we cook and heat our homes with natural gas?
Why not create jobs converting cars from running on gasoline to natural gas?
But there are the issues of fracking and methane escape.
Neo-libwealism has its claws into all of the parties, Mound. The differences are only matters of degree.
ReplyDeleteSince the 80's we have become a country with only 2 solid political parties--the conservatives - corporatists -- and the Liberal more soft-core corporatists. The other 2 parties will never be allowed to form a federal government by Bay street or the US - Wall street elites..period.
ReplyDeleteThe exercise played out since the late 70's is crap--phony--to placate all voters too smart to not know their being slowly but surely skinned of any means (taxes) to have real say in anything. Voting now will be as corrupt as our banking system is or our military system is and on and on.
How else could chapter 11 become part of NAFTA or our bank which were instructed to stay out of international gambling in derivatives---Do just that ---by expanding into other countries---they gambled themselves into billions of debt--& then demanded free bank bailouts and got them from Harper in 2009. Harper and his low-life minions are out to weaken all our institutions far more than under Harper...The idea is came from Rumsfeld of the Bush adm where government institutions were systematically 'hollowed out' to be later privatized for corporations to find the final source for easy profits...total ownership and control over taxpayers. And what is currently happening under Trump shredding to bits all that taxpayers pay for--services and programs to be confiscated for corrupt corporations...Much like the wars of regime change have done in stealing resources from targeted countries to be handed over to any and all corporations---while the costs of all these phony asinine carnage wars are to be paid for by taxpayers...and so it goes.
ReplyDeleteMarg, I fear you're right. Conservatives (Republicans) versus Liberals (Democrats) and damn little light between them. Harper set out to shift Canada's political centre well to the right. The Liberals (Conservative Lite) and the NDP (Latter Day Liberals) dutifully followed.
If the stupid choice is available, there's always some willing to choose it.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmentally, this is a stupid decion. Economically, stupid (there's no money in gas right now, and probably moving forward, too).
The only way this is a "smart" decision is politcally. Big business will love this. However, even this is stupid. Business will be the first to throw Horgan under the bus, first opportunity.
Hotgan will gain as much from this as BC will reap in profit. Not much at all.
The real problem is that there are some fundamentals most know nothing about....but all will be sorely affected when (not if) the worst happens..
ReplyDeleteHarper as the weakest and thus most bent-on-knees to obese corporations/banks quietly shoveled 120 billion in bank bailouts to our 5 major banks for gambling in derivatives after being to NOT to...No repercussion whatsoever. Since that telling year of 2009, Harper (until he was rightly booted out of office) inserted bank bailout/bail-in clauses into every federal budget....So has Trudeau, which is to be expected ---whatever party is elected ---credibility reigns with those that obey the power from Bay and Wall street.
Fast forward to the unexpected ass that is the US president, Trump just before the end of 2018 passed bill S2155 --which sets a new low as template go (first being the one bailout tried in Cyprus by the EU)....now all protective provisions from the Dodd/Frank Amendment are removed by S2155 which allows any bank having insolvency problems to steal all depositors monies, CD's and other fixed assets without any return or repayment....So welcome what should naturally follow...
If the asses that are the thinking cheeks of the Conservative party con our now short-term memory lost voters in Canada ---this will be the first law changed --quietly but devastatingly ....Canadian voters should close their TV's and put down their papers and find alternatives to the idiocy that is even CBC TV News...all lies all day--whether foreign policy in the Ukraine or Venezuela its all about oil/resources there or in the Middle East the corporations get the profits and we pay the cost/freight and blood of our own....and theirs....
Why does your anti robot trick screen do more to screw around and null and void me and I suspect others...? Maybe our comments are welcome ---got to wonder as the degree of censorship with CBC a still publicly funded news source ...and others is getting too much.
ReplyDeleteThat means all voters demand our public Bank ... the Bank of Canada be used to finance all projects in Canada. But....there are banks like the Bank of International Settlements with whom Canada is borrowing 180 billion dollars for infrastructure that will be lining the pockets of overseas millionairs. What is wrong with our Public Bank?? No, no can't have that....anyone in this country making 40,000 dollars a year or less will be the people who will pay through the nose for that loan, while shareholders reap the bounty. That is what is called "neoliberalism". But no one on this blog ever mentions the true facts of what neoliberalism is.
ReplyDeleteI have never been against REAL economic benefits for any province or region of Canada..
ReplyDeleteMy sole concern begins when corporate carpetbaggers align themselves with our (you work for us) politicians and end up going after THEIR ends while defrauding the aims promised by our party-in-power, in order to get elected.
Think we should be able to first make a case to sue for misleading and hidden factual evidence, which confirms fraud or agreement to defraud...
Taxpayers should set themselves up, as a off-side party to oversee and audit what each level of government is using our hard-earned taxes for Especially when there is obviously no benefit from certain actions taken without taxpayer knowledge such as bank bailouts using taxpayer money without any tangible justification--None of these banks give a damn if there's any financial loss to taxpayer funds or stability given the billions these same corporations have amassed without financial reason.....This applies to each and every political party ---local--provincial and federal..who knowingly helped undermine or falsely align voters wishes with those of corporations/banks expecting to reap more off others by doing worst bank practices...by gambling in derivatives.
Given the loaded political landscape designed by corporations, in line with any conservative party available.. All set by ideology to misuse phony so-called market influences to derail any and all merit gains by those less fortunate. Its like pouring bleach on donated food for a group in the Middle of phony America...(no longer exist because the worst are in-charge).
ReplyDeleteIf voters want a say in actual implementation of their policies then they should forget knee-bent pleading of those already bought off by corporations and banks...And start up an entirely different party--which only asked that members be taxpayers (or have annually paid taxes) , then maybe with proper searches for better-than-asses such as Trump or worst-ever PM Harper---we might ---just might have a chance to establish a stronger 'good governance--criteria as well as finally affecting all laws and regulations so they actually work (and Marketplace-is left with less obvious examples of pain inflicted on the very people paying for relief and fairness.