Justin Gives West/East Pipeline Yellow Light

After the B.C. election there was some speculation that Adrian Dix's sudden thumbs-down to the Trans Mountain Pipeline after a year or so of fence-sitting cost him votes.  I think that's wrong, but since the B.C. polls all turned out to crap, they can't tell us anything one way or another and we are therefore free to speculate as we please.  My opinion, FWIW, is based on the behavior of the B.C. Liberal campaign, which toughened its own anti-pipeline rhetoric in the last week of the race with Christy Clark's "we don't need Alberta, we don't need Canada" speech. In other words, the BC Libs worked to narrow the distance between the Liberal and NDP positions, not increase it.

Nevertheless some people seem to feel that a softer line on Alberta pipelines has become the politically expedient move.  Thankfully, Justin Trudeau is not among them:

The federal Liberal leader told the CBC’s Information Morning Fredericton on Thursday he has specific questions about potential toxins that may be used in the pipeline.

“I think it is a proposal that is extremely interesting. We are waiting to look at how they are going to deal with both the community, local, aboriginal concerns and the environmental concerns,” Trudeau said.

“The [substance] that they put to make that thick crude, thick bitumen run through those pipes can be very toxic. I want to see the plan for being environmentally responsible on it because it won’t go ahead if it will cost us on pollution, in degradation and in inefficiencies in the coming years.”

Now Trudeau is hardly going so far as to suggest that he will kill the proposal when he becomes PM (and its starting to look like he may).  He might simply be commenting on the general lay of the political landscape. Moreover, I think the line nine reversal will ultimately fail due to market disinterest rather than political machinations.  But its good to see that Justin is not simply abandoning the field to the pro-oil-patch forces on environmental issues.  He's showing a little bit of sand on the topic, and that's a good thing.

WTF Happened In B.C.?

You are asking me?  One thing I'll say is that this did not remind me of last year's Alberta polling cock-up.  The B.C. NDP are not an untried bunch, and the charges of radicalism that were flung at them are par for the course in a B.C. election, so  I can't see them having had much effect.   If I were to guess, I would say the turning point came when Christy Clark came out against the Trans-Mountain pipeline, essentially mirroring the NDP "no-pipeline" stand and taking away their most important policy contrast.  But I'm not even going to try to guess.

PS.  Congrats to Andrew Weaver, the first Green Party MLA ever elected to the B.C. Legislature.

BC Election Takes Me Back

Hendrix.  Magic mushrooms.  NDP candidates denounced as Chinese commies.  Man it brings back the old days....   Except that when I was coming of age the whole "NDPer is a commie!" ploy had already gone stale.  The Vander Zalm SoCreds had already retired  it from their playbook.  But wait!  This isn't the early 70s anymore, starchild,  its 2013 and its the B.C. Liberals  throwing down that card.  Does that mean that the more things change the more they remain the same, or that the more things remain the same the more they remain the same?  Anyway, stay classy Christy Clark.

Dean Skoreyko Is A Kook

Here's his political resume.  Note that it ends in 2010.  That's because the B.C. Tories ditched him for being a kook, a line of thinking they might have applied fruitfully to some of their candidates for the current B.C.  provincial election.  But now Dean's angry at me--sweet, innocent little bunny BCL--for "spamming" his website.  Which is really only half true.  I do make a point of sending a brief comment to every one  of his posts--that comment is "Kook", sometimes with punctuation, sometimes without. Just so he knows he's a kook.  And Dean's right, I  do crave attention; so thanks for it, SUCKAH!

Ian Tootill...

...is toast., as I predicted he would be.  Why?  Because the B.C. Conservatives may grab a handful of seats this time out and don't want their best shot at respectability in ages queered by weirdos.

PS.  I am totally enjoying the B.C. election right now.  We're up to, what four candidates who've had to step down for dumb shit they've said on the Internet?  I'm flashing back to the 2008 federal, where BCLSB alone forced two candidates and one campaign manager to resign.  That was the golden age of CDN political blogging, as far as I'm concerned.

Ian Tootill, Your Political Career Will Implode Now

“Who’s really to blame? Hitler or the people who acted on his words?”

“ ... We men love sluts ...”

And yes, that is his real name.