And make sure you vote one way or the other

So far my ballot will be a spoiled ballot... it makes no sense to endorse ideological losers and thus give them legitimacy.

In BC we have really only 2 political parties. The extreme right and the extreme left. Both parties are provincial in scope and the power of their ideological and policy influence is squarely centered where the votes are in the Lower Mainland. The urban economy of the Lower Mainland is completely different from the economy of Northern BC and bears no relations what so ever to our economic concerns in the North... and even at times conflicts with our Northern economic interests.

The duopoly of political power both buy their votes where they count... in urban vote rich Lower Mainland first and foremost... at best the North is an after thought to real policy direction for a sustainable North. When votes are bought in one part of the province the ledger always has a cost on it on the other side of that ledger, and that opportunity cost comes from the North almost exclusively.

Northern economic interests are opportunity cost marginalized for the consensus urban issues in the vote buying process. Northern policy is purely dollar return for Victoria in tax revenue oriented, and in no way is designed to reinvest in a Northern sustainable economy that makes the North a stable and economically diverse place to live. We are a playground for their ideologies.

I hope after this election people will see that our vote really means nothing in this part of the province anymore. Our politicians for the two main parties are nothing more than ambassadors for their parties when it comes to trying to obtain good Northern economic policy for the North.

IMO we require a Northern political block type party that speaks for Northern issues and the Northern traditional free enterprise economy first and foremost. As a tear drop in a lake of Lower Mainland votes we have no future belonging to their political parties that are oriented towards their economic needs and not ours... the two economies are not congruent.

Northern BC needs its own political party as a first step IMO to eventual independence as our own province running our own unique economy as a government that is relevant to the people and thus democratic to our needs in this part of the country.

Time Will Tell

This is a response to an e-mail being sent out by the NDP

NDP Are Lying About BC Rivers

We have always known the NDP cannot be trusted but they have reached a new low with the disgusting, irresponsible email they are sending around about BC’s rivers. You deserve to know the truth, so read on!

The NDP and their lobbyist Rafe Mair are asking us to believe that the Government of British Columbia would actually sell our rivers to the United States. The only fantastic conspiracy they haven’t asked us to believe is that aliens have captured the Premier and forced him to sign a secret deal with President Obama.

The TRUE secret is that run of the river power projects were started by the NDP and 17 of the existing 32 projects in BC were approved by the hypocritical NDP.

Under the NDP, companies had water leases forever. It was the BC Liberal Government that changed the legislation to only 40 years maximum. THE NDP ARE LYING.

Four NDP candidates have now disavowed themselves from the NDP campaign position on IPP’s. The Smithers NDP candidate won’t even put up Carole James posters, he’s so embarrassed. All NDP candidates know run of the river electricity is green and safe.

The BC Liberals have committed to making BC electricity self-sufficient, to stop importing dirty electricity and to use green power to do it. The NDP used to be a party that believed in the environment. TODAY THE NDP ARE SELLING WHAT REMAINS OF THEIR PRINCIPLE FOR VOTES.

Here is what prominent environmentalists are saying about IPP’s…

“Properly regulated Run of the River projects can be some of the least environmentally obtrusive forms of electricity production. The public discourse has been hijacked through greenwashing by those opposed to the privatization of energy and the potential impact on union jobs.”
Andrew Weaver
Professor, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
Lead author on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Times Colonist, Apr 16/09

"Why would a conservation organization do that (establish a new fund to finance independent power projects)? Because we believe the need for renewables is very much among us, and very present. We believe that IPPs are worth doing."
Ian Gill, President
Ecotrust Canada
Vancouver Sun, Apr 8/09

“To say that all run-of-river projects destroy rivers and are not ‘green’ is absurd. I’ve been up to Toba/Montrose with the Klahoose. I’ve seen how Plutonic’s operations are reopening tributaries and cleaning up the mess of crushed culverts and downed bridges that logging left behind”.
Tzeporah Berman
http://www.zerocarboncanada.ca/backlash-against-the-green-economy-in-bc,
Mar 19/09

DON’T LET THE NDP RUIN OUR ECONOMY AGAIN!

There are 1,100 British Columbians earning their living from IPP’s. The incompetent NDP are threatening a moratorium. That’s their response to everything, put a moratorium on it! To hell with jobs and real people.

Every British Columbian deserves to see the desperation and cynicism of Carole James and her band of idiots. They insult us with their ridiculous claims. Remember when those scams from Nigeria first came out a few years back? This is the NDP with another Nigerian scam. Don’t be one of their victims!

Here are the facts:

Of the 290,000 rivers and streams in BC, Independent Power Projects (IPP’s) are proposed for only 0.03% of those rivers.
Of 35 approved Run of the River projects in BC today, 17 were approved by the hypocritical NDP in the 1990’s.
The NDP actively promoted this form of green power when in government.
The Crown owns all rivers and will own them forever.
The BC Liberal government changed legislation to reduce the length of water leases to 40 years. Under the NDP, these leases lasted forever.
When a water lease expires, there are no rights to transfer the permit – it reverts to the Crown.
The BC Liberal government passed legislation preventing the sale or privatization of BC Hydro. The NDP voted against it.
BC Hydro is investing $9 billion in expanding and creating new public power assets.
The NDP considered selling BC Hydro in the 1990’s. The BC Liberal government has never considered it.
Today BC buys dirty power from Alberta and the USA. The NDP supports that.
The BC Liberal government wants BC to be electricity self-sufficient and they want that power to come from green sources.
BC already has some of the lowest electricity prices in North America and that will not change.
The reckless and irresponsible NDP moratorium on green power projects will hurt working families and cost BC thousands of jobs.

"In BC we have really only 2 political parties. The extreme right and the extreme left."

This is untrue. The extreme right is Libertarian or Fascist and the extreme left is communist or anarchist, although anarchy blends into libertarianism eventually.

Neither of the two main political parties in BC are extreme anything. The Liberal party is certainly misnamed and is a right wing conservative party rather than liberal, but it is not libertarian and, despite much political rhetoric, is not fascist either.

The NDP is a middle of the road social democracy party. It rejects communist philosophy, ownership of private property and acceptance of business corporations being examples.

Both parties accept free speech and democratic elections, features noticeably lacking in extremist parties.

Free Enterprise's comments would appear more reasonable if he stopped tha ad hominem attacks. These are the name calling and insults, which are used to distract the reader from thinking about what has been written.

Perhaps an accurate statement about NDP policy regarding PPP run of river projects would help, but obviously that will never come from Free Enterprise.

In a nutshell it is that the Province, through BC Hydro, should develope run of river projects where thay are appropriate and always while preserving the environment. They should benefit the province, not private companies.

The so-called dirty power is presumably the thermal plants, which run whether BC buys the excess power or not since they take a long time to power down and power up. Note that the Liberal government buys this excess power as well, but that point is somehow overlooked. If not purchased by someone it goes to waste while the environmental effect remains the same.

BC Hydro has been crippled by Campbell's stealth legislation.

BC Hydro was once the jewel of the B.C. economy, the envy of the world, and the source of cheap power for domestic use and for export.

Now it's crippled by legislation deliberately devised by the Campbell Gang. Accenture has control now, thanks to the same guy and same gang that let BC Rail slide out of public ownership and into private pockets.

Can anyone imagine premiers W.A.C. Bennett or Dave Barrett allowing such things to happen? No, because Bennett & Barrett alike were able to put the public interest first.

No mistake, all that changed in 2001 and tomorrow there's the golden opportunity to put things back on track again.

P.S. I just came across this item, amongst the long list of things which the Campbell Gang pushed into stealth legislation. I didn't know this about the wild flowers, did you?


Quote from "History, Irony and the Dogwood," by Kevin Logan:

Fast forward to 2002, when Gordon Campbell's "Liberal" Government quietly repealed the Dogwood, Rhododendron and Trillium Protection Act while fulfilling their stealth role as the facilitator of a massive wealth transfer from the commons to the corporate. This government removed all barriers and obstacles allowing the privateers to gorge on our natural resource wealth including the protection of the Provincial emblem. This move was highly symbolic." This was part of an unprecedented revolutionary attack on British Columbia's natural resources ...

.

In other countries they have introduced a two terms limit on the premier or president to avoid corruption and mismanagment. 8 years of Campbell's rule is enough. And BC badly needs change in its government to bring back law and order to this province, to bring back a balance between CEO interests and ordinary British Columbian interests.

In this election, NDP is our only chance for change. Take a chance on NDP and vote for change.