The Written Word - April 27th , 2008

By Rafe Mair

We now have less than a year before the next election – if Premier Campbell sticks to the legal agenda – but will he? Can he afford to? Might he not take a sudden plunge this June or perhaps September? Why would he?

There are mighty forces readying themselves to fight the Campbell dictatorship on the one issue where he’s most vulnerable – the environment. It’s true that the Premier has received brownie points for his rhetoric if not action on global warming but he’s  miscalculating in thinking that will act as a smokescreen for his environmental inadequacies. In fact the opposite us happening differences. Before I go further I must declare my interest – I am employed by the Save our Rivers Society bound to stop private power interests from destroying BC Hydro and God only knows how many rivers and streams in the bargain.

What Campbell the Ink fish can’t hide is his government’s appalling record on Atlantic salmon fish cages, destruction of the ALR, unbelievable insincerity with environmental concerns over highway building and his policy of strangling BC Hydro while destroying hundreds of rivers and streams.

What Campbell the dictator accomplishes by a snap election is moving before the environmental forces have their act together.

My sense of it is that it’s too late. The election itself would galvanize the environmentalists.

You can be sure of this, though – an early election has certainly given Campbell & Co pause for thought.

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