In B.C., it’s ‘stupid’ against ‘liars’

Tom Fletcher
Revelstoke Times Review
October 13, 2008

VICTORIA – Premier Gordon Campbell never gets drawn into federal or local politics, except when he does.

At the annual municipal convention, in the midst of both federal and local election campaigns, Campbell offered some logger’s advice to national NDP leader Jack Layton on scrapping the softwood lumber agreement: “Give yer head a shake.”

Campbell’s looking at a grim winter, with his carbon tax taking a daily beating as they days grow chilly. And he knows his main opposition is a vertically integrated machine running at all three levels. A strong federal result for the NDP feeds into a better push in local elections and it all builds up towards next May where the NDP has its only provincial growth opportunity.

It’s been mostly lost in the noise of the federal vote, but the B.C. Liberals have gone into full campaign mode, and there’s truth to B.C. NDP leader Carole James’ claim that Campbell is spooked as Halloween draws near.

Forests Minister Pat Bell piled on after Campbell’s initial hit, circulating a letter from the CEOs of Canfor, Interfor and West Fraser Timber that politely describes Layton as “misinformed” and his suggestion a recipe for further disaster in the industry.

Then came Finance Minister Colin Hansen, jumping on a James TV interview in which she skated around the softwood agreement, and promised a “moratorium” on independent power projects (IPPs). Reckless, job-killing schemes, fumed Hansen. The NDP fired back that he’s “resorting to lies,” and offered vague quotes from James’ TV appearance. The B.C. Liberals sent out more quotes from James and other NDP MLAs to support their claims.

The B.C. Liberals and IPP supporters are really getting bent out of shape over a union-backed campaign against private power developments. Hydro unions and the Wilderness Committee just held a conference in Vancouver under the banner of B.C. Citizens for Public Power. A rival group calling itself B.C. Citizens for Green Energy, whose leaders deny any connection to the IPP industry, described it this way:

“Looking at the conference program, it appears to be a two-day boot camp heavy on indoctrination, strategy, communications and networking. The result will probably be many more small, supposedly grassroots groups across the province.”

Soon Energy Minister Richard Neufeld was making time in his schedule to phone me, “blown away” that James had called for a moratorium as 1,100 people go to work at high-paying rural jobs to build wind power and run-of-river projects.

“It’s actually stupid politics on their part,” Neufeld said. “They’re working on the idea that BC Hydro could be privatized. Hell, nothing could be further from the truth.”

NDP energy critic John Horgan’s suggestion that BC Hydro should instead continue to purchase power on the open market is “so ridiculous, so stupid, it’s hard for me to believe.”

Neufeld says if B.C. stopped power development, in 40 years we’d be importing nearly half of our supply, from Alberta (all private power) and the U.S. (mostly private power).

A slightly more polite slagging match over private power broke out on the Simon Fraser University campus where professor Mark Jaccard took on his colleagues John Calvert and Marvin Shaffer. Jaccard, the premier’s special advisor on climate change, offered a negative “peer review” of books by Calvert and Shaffer that were source material for the public power conference.

Jaccard dismisses Calvert’s Liquid Gold: Energy Privatization in British Columbia as “best read as a political propaganda tract. …Indeed, facts are wrong and evidence is distorted in a manner that consistently supports a sinister conspiracy theory.”

I’m not going to lie to you, that’s professor-speak for stupid.

Alas, not the last word

As I was writing the above, another NDP “reality check” arrived, referring to further “lies” propagated by Neufeld. What James really said on TV: “We’ve said a moratorium on independent power projects, not the end of them. There may be, actually, opportunities to partner up with an independent power project, but control should sit with BC Hydro.” Projects that help aboriginal communities, not just investors, would also continue.

Furthermore, Neufeld misquoted Horgan in the Revelstoke Times Review and even got the date wrong. The NDP then poses this question:

“Is Richard Neufeld as ignorant about energy policy as pundits say vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is about foreign policy? You be the judge.”

Housing up next

There’s no fall session at the B.C. legislature, but we’re now getting almost a daily question period in the form of dueling news releases.

Fresh from the power tussle, James and Vancouver MLA Jenny Kwan got together at a Downtown Eastside church for some gritty testimonials from the homeless about life in the Campbell regime.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman responded with election war-room speed: “Carole James is good at photo opportunities but when it comes to action she’s opposed and voted against every single measure introduced over the last seven years to help the homeless and low-income British Columbians.”

In what may be a record, Coleman was responding to an event that hadn’t even happened yet.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers. tfletcher@blackpress.ca