Must Reads from Last Week
OPINION
Trudeau, Orwell and ‘Deliverology’
PM embraces a political fad that promises accountability and delivers — well, nothing.
Excerpt: What does a status quo politician do when he wants to hide his aversion to real change?
“Deliverology is an information-oriented approach to politics. It’s something that wouldn’t be out of place in Orwell’s ‘Minitrue.’ Fundamentally this ‘deliverology’ looks like manipulating constraints on the public by the powerful (to keep them in power) through the medium of information.”
And that’s what Trudeau is now doing. He refused to deliver on electoral reform and won’t be able to deliver on climate change. Read more
Keystone XL and petition of our Federal Government:
Excerpt: State authorities in Nebraska just issued a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline – but along a different path than the original route TransCanada wanted. We’re still determining exactly what this re-route means, but we know one thing for sure: this fight is definitely not over.
If politicians like Trump and Trudeau keep bulldozing ahead with pipelines like Keystone XL and Kinder Morgan, it’s up to us to rise up and stop tar sands expansion at the source.
The Teck Frontier mine is a massive tar sands expansion project. If built, it would be an open pit mine nearly three times the size of Vancouver, and would fill massive export pipelines like Kinder Morgan – and, most likely, Keystone XL.
Site C:
Read Andrew Weaver on Site C.
Excerpt: We need to keep the pressure on the NDP to cancel Site C, to counteract the opposite pressure from, for example, unions. We know how the NDP have depended on union support. We can only hope that with the new donation legislation, the NDP will be able to come out from under that pressure and do what they know is right. Read more
More on Site C from The Commonsense Canadian. Here’s an excerpt:
“Say in 20 years we do need more electricity. We sure as heck wouldn’t be building Site C to supply it. At the rate renewables of all stripes are dropping in cost, we’d avail ourselves of the latest, best technology – which wouldn’t be a 70-year-old idea for a mega-dam. No less than the head of the Site C Joint Review Panel, Harry Swain, the BCUC itself, and other eminent energy experts not tied to Site C, Hydro or the government, have come to the same conclusion. We won’t need the power for a very long time and if and when we do, Site C will not be the best option, either environmentally or in terms of cost.”
BC Electoral Reform Referendum
The BC government has set up a site for the 2018 referendum. They are looking for feedback between now and February 28, 2018, at 4 p.m. Everyone please check out the questionnaire and make a written submission if you think some of the questions are too confusing or obscure. For example, they have a PR system called MMM which Terry Dance-Bennink of Fair Vote BC says she’s never even heard of. There are links to read about different systems, the questionnaire, and for written submissions to citizenengagement@gov.bc.ca.
But BEFORE YOU GO TO THE SURVEY, check out Fair Vote BC’s guide to the questionnaire. As you may remember, the Federal Liberals created a similar MyDemocracy.ca for supposed consultation when Justin Trudeau decided to throw out his promise of electoral reform. Many of those questions were obviously designed to be confusing, or were impossible choices. Fair Vote has gone through the survey and provides thoughts on the questions.
BC Electoral Reform Referendum, Part 2: The Gauntlet is Thrown
The BC Liberals are mounting their anti-PR campaign. Andrew Wilkinson, a BC Liberal leadership candidate, calls it “The NDP’s Stealth Campaign.”
Dianne Watts, another leadership candidate has said on Twitter, “Defeating proportional representation is my #1 priority. I’m hellbent on ensuring we defeat it.
For trivia nerds, check out this Facebook page: Great Moments in First Past the Post History.
Also check out Fair Vote Comox Valley’s Facebook page.
