Politics. It isn’t over ’til it’s over, but at this writing we’ve survived them all in 2018: world, federal, provincial, local, climate, Trumpian, all manner of politics. Perhaps even rotten orange politics?
Start happily: A third strike, yer out, for those scheming to game B.C.’s electoral process. Like the legendary butcher who placed his beefy thumb on the scales, New Democrat John Horgan, Green Leader Andrew Weaver, and above all manipulative Attorney General David Eby outfumbled themselves, as my mother would say, in their confusing self-serving design to ensconce themselves in power forever.
Praise for B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson who, whether his model or not, followed Napoleon’s dictum: “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake.” As Vaughn Palmer pointed out in a superb inquest into the 61-39 per cent vote favouring the present first past the post system, Wilkinson in their public debate simply, devastatingly asked questions that Horgan couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.
Supposed environmental champion Weaver once again proved that he’s less obsessed with saving the little fishies than he is in fishy ways to expand Green legislative membership.
Praise, too, for New Democrat Bill Tieleman, much admired by the undersigned, and former Liberal Suzanne Anton in their non-partisan leadership against proportional representation. But it’s likely optimistic to think the stake has been driven into the heart of this Dracula.
• • •
Turning to the important stuff – West Vancouver and its new council – there was an interesting vote on whether to send the West Coast Environmental Law-generated formulaic letter to the world’s major oil companies, dinging them to share fairly in the costs of climate change.
Motherhood no longer being the gold standard for nice, feel-good pronouncements, the feeling good being felt by the pronouncers at no cost to them, it is difficult to categorize this ideologically charged undertaking.
During the Dec. 10 debate Mayor Mary-Ann Booth said, with matchless understatement: “We don’t expect immediate results from this letter.” Do the world’s oil companies not know what powerful protagonists they’re dealing with? Still, Coun. Bill Soprovich chimed in: “They have to be put on notice.”
Coun. Craig Cameron, lawyer that he is, judiciously observed: “We have very few tools” to deal with “what we are asking of these companies. … ‘Your fair share’ is a matter of debate.” Dealing with climate change is “a matter of individual and collective responsibility.”
Coun. Sharon Thompson looked over the proposed letter and concluded it was “ambiguous.” And Coun. Marcus Wong made the most smartly all-encompassing contribution to the debate, questioning, among much else, how oil’s downstream industries fitted into shared responsibility (and costs).
There’s a lot of downstream out there. I’d ask: Flowing right into your home, automobile, swimming pool? Do you perceive on the horizon new user charges or levies specifically allocated as your share of fighting climate change?
Which, charges of “deniers” notwithstanding, is still viewed skeptically by many, including some who fatalistically suspect human activity isn’t the half of it.
Science has identified the Medieval Warming Period, roughly 900-1300, and the Little Ice Age in northern climes, 1300-1870, somewhat before Henry Ford, General Motors, Royal Dutch Shell and Esso reorganized the environment, and when global population was far smaller. And also before world leaders burned noxious fuel flying to environmental summits – long on lofty rhetoric and short on down-to-earth clear explanations about what’s to be done.
But, returning to immediate matters, which are more than most of us can handle, note this:
The dissenters from sending WV’s letter were Wong and Thompson – the two brand-new councillors, both members of the slate (the others Jim Finkbeiner and Gabrielle Loren) who quite late in the campaign threw their support behind Mark Sager.
Coincidence? Or the core of an opposition to Booth – and Peter Lambur, also a late Sager supporter, makes three, just one short of a council majority on any given vote – that could make the mayor’s next four years a bit of a bother?
• • •
Ah, the rotten oranges, as promised up there in para one. Every Christmas our household, like multitudes, buys a five-pound box of Oriental Sun Chinese Mandarin oranges. And invariably there are a couple of rotten ones. This year, though – six stinkers.
Just eyeball evidence, but were there more stacks of these boxes than usual lying around in stores? And, pure conjecture: If so, are shoppers rebuking in a small way China’s seizure of three Canadians in retaliation for Canada’s role in the Meng Wanzhou affair?
• • •
Unbelievable! WV’s town hall doors were locked last Friday – from noon until 10 a.m. yesterday. A day and a half’s extra holiday for staff, while small businesses struggled for every seasonal dime. Merry Christmas, taxpayers!
• • •
I’ve run out of space before I’ve run out of 2018 items. This cherished one I’ve repeated countless times over the last 50 years. Actor Pat O’Brien: “Never drink on New Year’s Eve. That’s amateur night.”
