Must Reads from Last Week
BC Electoral Reform Referendum
Get involved locally
Fair Vote Comox Valley (FVCV) canvassers are going to start canvassing in early March. We’ve been holding a series of “Talking to People About PR” exercises which have been a huge amount of fun and very good preparation for knocking on doors or talking to people on the phone. There will probably be more of these exercises held over the course of the rest of this campaign.
Check out Fair Vote Comox Valley Facebook page and Fair Vote BC’s page.
Fair Vote Comox Valley is also now accepting donations. If you can’t give your time, here’s how you can support this campaign over the next year. E-transfers can be made to: fairvotecomoxvalley@gmail.com. If you do an e-transfer, please put your name in the Note field and some sort of contact information so we can thank you. If you’d like to write a cheque, send an email to fairvotecomoxvalley@gmail.com and we’ll give you the address.
We need your help to get to 50 + 1 in this referendum. We’ve got a great group, but we need more people. Get in on the action! Contact Megan at m.ardyche@gmail.com to get involved.
Let’s Make Every Vote Count, March 14, 2018
Don’t miss this event: FVCV is hosting an information night on March 14, 2018, at the Stan Hagen Theatre at North Island College. Doors open at 6:30; the event starts at 7 p.m. Speakers will include Elizabeth May as a previous member of the Federal Committee on Electoral Reform and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, Rachel Blaney, MP for North Island-Powell River, Barb Berger of FV Comox Valley, and Sheldon Falk of the NIC Students Union and BC Federation of Students. Tickets are available at Eventbrite. Tickets are free, but I highly recommend you get a ticket because people with tickets will be allowed in first.
Locally:
Kus-Kus-Sum
Wonderful news! Project Watershed has received a five-year grant from Department of Fisheries and Oceans for $689,000 for their “unpave a parking lot and put in paradise” project in Comox/Courtenay.
Provincially:
Kinder Morgan
Part 1: Elizabeth May has an article in the Times Colonist, taking the Federal government and the National Energy Board to task for their stance on Kinder Morgan. Read more.
Excerpt: “…national interest,” according to the NEB, does not include energy security, net employment benefits, environment, climate, GDP or anything other than getting the pipeline approved.”
Part 2: Prelude to march in Vancouver on March 10, 2018: “Members of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation launched a nationwide call-out on Feb. 6 to “rise up and support the mobilization.” The call-out went to “hundreds of thousands” of people, including environmental groups, civic society organizations and pipeline opponents.” And another article in the Globe and Mail. When PM Trudeau said in Nanaimo that “Kinder Morgan will go through,” my thought was, “Oh man, you don’t know British Columbians very well.”
Nationally:
Elizabeth May’s Week in Review
There are five links to Trans Mountain Pipeline, links to the Fisheries Act and Navigation Protection Act, Indigenous people. There are three links to engage in government consultations, and much more. Read more
Thought of the day:
[We need to abandon] the silly delusion that there are any passengers on Starship Earth, and [take] up our responsibilities as crewmen….” (Spider Robinson, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, 1981)
