There is little good news north of the border as the Conservatives won a decisive victory in a snap election called by the NDP, who thought they would easily beat the out of office party. This has to be one of the worse political decisions ever. They lost, 48% to 37%. It was an election not needing to be called, since they still had two years to govern.
The damning thing of the election is that it was the lowest voter turnout on record. Fewer than half of eligible voters cast a ballot. So in essence, the Conservatives won with less than 25% of the eligible voters voting.
The new government leader, Lorne Doerkson has immediately called for massive growth in resource extraction along the lines of Alberta. Timber cutting at new record levels and LNG extraction and shipping along with new expansions of tanker traffic on both the north and south coasts.
We have taken a lot of self righteous heat from our Canadian neighbors over our reelection of Trump (let alone his first election). But the B.C. voters who actually showed up were following in Bill Clinton’s words, “It’s the economy, stupid”. Now a minority of the minority has elected a right wing environmental foe. Do Canadians really deserve their democracy? (for that matter does the U.S.? We’ll find out next week). If you don’t value voting maybe you deserve the politicians you get. They are about to get environmental destruction on a level they thought they had reigned in decades ago. The indigenous tribes have also lost, as the government also plans to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) according to the Narwhal news. That may be harder to do than they think, as the Conservatives need the approval of tribes to enact their environmental destruction. Otherwise they could be caught up in court for years.
Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, British Columbia, Canada, Environmental Law, First Nations |
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