Green Party and its three seats holding up pipeline
By Letter to the Editor on April 30, 2018.
I’ve been following that pipeline story — the one about the addition to the already existing one to the Burnaby, B.C., terminal — from the beginning. As far as I and possibly others are concerned, the fiasco started when the last B.C. election resulted in a ‘now what?’ situation where neither party, the Liberals nor the NDP, managed enough seats to form a majority government.So, one or the other had to ‘woo’ an, until then, insignificant party, the Greens.The Greens garnered three seats.And with only three seats they more or less ‘won’ the election.I’m sure negotiations were hot and heavy!To which party, theLiberals or the NDP, should those three Greens throw their now crucial support?Mr. Horgan and his NDP won.In other words, the Greens were now in a position to throw one of their favourite platforms into the ring and probably insisted that the only way they would choose the NDP to form a coalition with would be if they promised to champion the Green Party’s major agenda — no more pipelines, etc. Mr. Horgan, having achieved what he probably dreamed of since Kindergarten, is not likely to risk it all by not obeying the Greens. Now here we have a leader and his cohorts who are supposed to have people as their main focus — jobs, social programs, etc. — who are so deathly afraid to lose their jobs, they are willing to risk everything — future jobs, their neighbour’s economy, Canada’s economy, Canada’s reputation as a dependable trading partner. The possibility of shipping oil by train that has been proven to be far more catastrophe prone than the constitution even. All environmental concerns had been fully addressed.I wonder what if all those sincere and not so sincere protesters were to realize that Mr. Horgan would be willing, anxious even, to drop that charade at the drop of a hat should four or five of the sitting Liberals cross the floor to the other side and he would no longer need those Greens.We all know how willing some politicians are to cross over the fence if the grass looks much greener on the other side. But, never fear, once the Horganites feel that coming sting and are assured that they will not lose face, can pretend to have tried oh so hard, did their very best, but reluctantly had to surrender, that pipeline will be built. The last time I remember a politician this determined to do what is right, totally disregarding his plummeting poll standings and willing to lose the next election in order to accomplish what he thought was essential for Canada, was Brian Mulroney on NAFTA. Ted Kohlmetz Medicine Hat 9-8
