Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
— George Bernard Shaw
You don't need to live in Toronto's moronic "Ford Nation" to know the ugly truth that across Canada, more and more people feel disenfranchised from the political.
Call 'em what you like - maybe Toronto excepted - politicians aren't dummies. Most need their jobs. Note how when the polls turn against him, Prime Minister Harper suddenly sings a happy tune at the piano in a safe Tory riding, with good lighting for the news cameras. Where will Premier Christy Clark turn when the reality of her sellout to the oil and gas lobbies settles in?
Somebody in the hotbox always has a bright idea. In Australia, newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott is set on turning back the clock on important environmental legislation, most notably repealing the carbon tax implemented by the previous Labour government. A similar B.C. tax brought in by former Premier Gordon Campbell has never functioned here as more than a cash cow for the government. Its revenues from gasoline sales could, and should, fund improved public transit that would actually help the planet. Let's not forget that despite all its woes, TransLink is still a provincial baby. But that would mean the beancounters in Victoria would have to do something sensible with the money.
In prosperous Oz Down Under, abolishing the carbon tax was a direct financial pitch to voters who carried Abbott's coalition government to victory over the mercurial Kevin Rudd. A Labour leader akin to the NDP here, Rudd should have commanded the loyalty of working folks in the voting booth, but Abbott told voters that junking the tax would put $500 in every family's pocket. They voted with their wallets. End of tax, end of social democrat Labour. Interestingly, there's a Green Party contingent from progressive Melbourne that's partnered in Abbott's new Liberal-National coalition. It demonstrates that when power is on the line, the Greens and free enterprise interests are able to cut a deal. That's worth remembering.
Will Premier Christy Clark be tempted to scratch B.C.'s unpopular tax? Here's the fine print: Australia's new government that just sliced off a big chunk of traditional labour support has also explained how it will be looking to develop further natural gas revenues courtesy of hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. fracking. Sound familiar? They've found a way to scrap hard-won environmental legislation, buy a new support sector, and move on with the LNG development that China's seemingly bottomless energy market craves. Not even Conservative insider Rob Ford could top that combination.
Locally, what kind of impact will North Vancouver's Craig Keating have as new NDP party president? He must have had a constructive hand in setting the date of their party's provincial leadership convention well off to early next fall. That gives voters a long opportunity to look over the contenders, and to witness a year and a half of Christy Clark.
Port Coquitlam's Mike Farnworth is the early frontrunner. A big, likeable guy, he should rightly have led them when Carole James stepped aside, but the party's old guard muscled in the unmemorable Adrian Dix. It might have been a different election outcome with Farnworth at the helm last May. He's been an MLA since 1991, and a three-term municipal councillor before that. In brief, like Premier Clark he's a career politician. NDP'ers think of him as Mike Harcourt-style material. That makes me wonder if he's already reached his best-by date.
If the NDP still have any street-smarts, and that's a big if, the two names to watch should be David Eby, the first time candidate and human-rights lawyer who defeated Clark in her Point Grey home riding, and fellow newbie MLA George Heyman from Vancouver-Fairview who packs a big-time resume. He's past executive director of Sierra Club B.C., and a three-term president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union. Burnaby's federal New Democrat MP Peter Julian is the party's biggest nag in Ottawa. I can't see him going the distance.
Municipally, the latest Lower Mainland citizens' pushback against dumb decision-making is raising eyebrows. The legal case private citizens launched to stop Vancouver's park board from ramming a controversial bike lane through the Kits Beach-Hadden Park area marks the second populist uprising in the past several months.
In July, heritage advocates in Fort Langley filed suit against Langley Township for approving construction of the controversial Coulter Berry building in the historic community's downtown core. The project has been a hot-button issue in the Fraser Valley, which is experiencing unprecedented growth as young urban migrants flock eastward. Despite waves of public protest and the ire of Langley's Heritage Society, the township's mayor and council in a 7-1 vote approved a three-storey mixed-use redevelopment last year. Earlier this year, concerned residents formed The Society of Fort Langley Residents for Sustainable Development with the purpose of filing suit in B.C. Supreme Court to halt the project. Their actions are reminiscent of GUARD in the district here back in the mid-'90s, only more legal. On July 8, they sought an injunction.
The argument they advanced is that the proposed building is out of character with the old fort community's heritage ambience. They also charge that it exceeds density specified in the area's official community plan. These committed folks know what they're talking about. On Oct. 25, Justice Joel Groves in the Supreme Court of B.C. in Chilliwack ruled that the alteration permit for the site issued by Langley Township is invalid. Construction work on the building's foundation halted forthwith. Mayor Jack Froese and five councillors have since voted in camera to appeal the court ruling. So much for the voice of the people.
I'm told planning staff advised against the contentious project design, but were overruled by their developer-cosy political bosses. Construction on the site remains shut down. Couldn't someone there cut a deal that worked? Didn't elected officials read the Local Government Act, or like Rob Ford, did they just know best? Should be an interesting municipal election there next year.
That dubious distinction the Metro Vancouver area received a week or so back of being the most congested city in North America sums it all up, doesn't it? The usual real estate industry spin doctors have been on the morning talk shows explaining how it really isn't all that bad, but they only think money and don't read the term papers we see written by young people in universities. The anxiety the present generation reports about its place in the unfolding scheme of things around the Lower Mainland is disheartening. They give a damn. They lament the diminishing quality of living here, the loss of nature. They're turned off by politics.
For this they can thank their local politicians and the urban planners who claim to have a vision, but it's an unrelentingly cruel vision unless you love those rabbit-hutch condos, pencil-thin greenspaces, and trendy playgrounds among the highrise blocks where stylish moms push $1,200 strollers. If anybody asks, you can tell 'em that's why people have started pushing back. We're a different kind of nation here on the Pacific coast.
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