During my recent time, between engagements so to speak, I thought a lot about what I saw unfolding before my very eyes.

The Gordon Campbell government arrogance has reached the height where, because they see no decent opposition, are playing a cynical game of divide and conquer. The “environment” is suddenly a big issue and the government, with its usual cynicism, has found a way to ignore environmental concerns.

The Campbell government would have you believe that before allowing any potential impact on the environment they require an environmental assessment. This is crap … and let’s examine that process and see what it really is by looking at two relevant sections of the Environmental Assessment Act.

(1) The Lieutenant Governor in Council must appoint an individual to be the Executive Director of the Environmental Assessment Office. This means that the guy in charge of environmental assessments is hired and can be fired by the Premier and is thus a political not a public service appointment

3      1)  The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing what constitutes a reviewable project for the purposes of this Act. Again, the Premier has the power to decide what may be reviewed and what may not.

What in fact happens? Well, what doesn’t happen is any opportunity for members of the public to question a project until it’s a done deal because, you see, the Campbell government wants the appearance of environmental assessment where in fact there is none. You would think that the order of business would be first an independent environmental assessment then the decision to do or not do the project. In fact it’s done quite the other way around.

Let’s look first at the Sea-to-Sky extravaganza, a project that has Campbell’s developer friends salivating over the huge real estate profits will result. The decision to go this route to Whistler instead of other cheaper and less intrusive routes was made by the Campbell government without permitting any public involvement nor any independent environmental assessment of other possible routes. The decision having been made, the Ministry of Environment went into a long-winded and utterly useless environmental assessment which entailed public meetings where the government invited questions and gave no answers then or later. It became a propaganda exercise long after the fact. Part of the development was the environmental rape of the Eagle Ridge with the government preferring to smash the environment rather than build a tunnel. Not only were the local citizens given no chance to say anything before the project went ahead, the Liberal MLA for the area Joan MacIntyre refused to even listen to her constituents much less take their concerns to the government.

Then there’s the massive insult to the environment of one of BC’s oldest communities, Delta, by the South Fraser Perimeter Road and huge expansion of Deltaport. Not only were the people not given any chance to speak their minds before the decision was made, when a huge public protest was made last March, the MLA for the area, Val Roddick, usually impossible to shut up, didn’t even show up. This meeting, incidentally, was scarcely a partisan affair but featured speakers from all political persuasions – in fact about 1/3 were from West Vancouver, scarcely a hot bed of socialism and speakers included a Delta Councilor, a former Vancouver Councilor and traffic expert most definitely not of the left, the MP for the area, Conservative John Cummins and a former Socred Minister.

I add to the list the Campbell governments unbelievable, even for them arrogance, in issuing two new fish farm licenses contrary to the recommendations of a recent report by a special legislative committee.

How does this government get away with this behaviour?

It’s simple. There is no effective opposition. In fact it’s pathetic. The environmental movement is badly divided … if it isn’t your ox that’s being gored, who cares? And lastly, it’s Mair’s Axiom II, namely, that “you don’t have to be a 10 in politics; you can be a 3 if everyone else is a 2” so that as long as Campbell remains a 3, he’s in business.

There we have it – a haughty, insolent, arrogant government and an inarticulate, weakly led opposition.

What has British Columbia done to deserve this?

Allowed ourselves to be divided – if the problem is in Prince George, who in Kelowna, let alone Vancouver or Victoria, cares. As long as we only see issues from our own parochial point of view we will continuje to deserve bad governments and oppositions.

You can hear Rafe "LIVE" at 9:00 this morning on the internet at  www.rafelive.com