SIR (GLENNY) GALLAHAD RIDES AGAIN
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VICTORIA – You’ve got to hand it to Premier Glen Clark, he’s a consummate politician who knows how to push all the right buttons.
First he does a little fed-bashing and puts the mighty United States in their place over the salmon war; then he draws the battle lines in the war in the woods and tells the Greenpeacers where to go and what to do there.
Next he takes aim at bad drivers to save us all from skyrocketing insurance rates and finally, he goes after the tobacco industry with a vengeance. What a guy.
On the surface, the fervor with which the premier throws himself into these frays makes him look like a knight in shining armor. And I suppose, he is, in a way, since he’s unquestionably defending the interests of British Columbian.
Alas, there are ulterior motives, and the spin doctors have been burning the midnight oil to make our premier look like Sir Gallahad, riding into battle.
You see, the premier’s image was a little tarnished by the balanced-budget fibs he told before the election. And his battle cries of protecting health care and education had begun to ring a little tedious. Clearly, some new, big-ticket, non-partisan issues were needed to polish his image a bit.
Along comes the Ugly American and stumbles right into the parlor of the premier’s spin doctors, who lose no time making political hey with the Yankee’s refusal to bargain in good faith over salmon allocation.
I’m sure Prime Minister Jean Chretien winced when Clark to the Americans they would have to get the hell out of the missile-testing range on Vancouver Island, but hey, the folks in British Columbia loved it.
Greenpeace and its shock troops also couldn’t have come at a better time. Clark was poised to announce his much-awaited Timber and Jobs Accord that is to create 21,000 new jobs in the forestry sector, and, by Jove, no eco terrorists were going to keep him from being the big job creator.
Wisely, the premier decided to ditch his no-fault auto insurance scheme, but he seized the opportunity to announce a crack-down, probably the 30th or so in the last 25 years, on bad drivers.
Fortunately, for Clark, his two-year moratorium on ICBC rates runs out soon, so he was able to warn of possible rate hikes without being accused of breaking another promise.
The ambush on the tobacco industry was one welcomed by roughly two-thirds of voters, the ones who don’t smoke, not a bad return on investment. But of all the image-polishing schemes, this one is a bit without substance.
To start with the government issued only a "challenge" to the industry to start paying for the damage its product does to the lungs and hearts of British Columbians. Legislation that would provide the basis for legal action against the tobacco industry is to be passed in this session, but we’re years away from launching an actual law suit.
Amidst all this commotion, John Shields, chief of the B.C. Government Employees Union, did the premier a big favor by publicly attacking him over employee cutbacks. He put the icing on Clark’s cake when he said his union would send the NDP government packing, unless the premier mended his ways.
Right, John, you’re going to publicly support the Liberals in the next election. And pigs will learn to fly.
All in all, it’s been a couple of months for our premier. The budget fiasco has been all but forgotten; the Liberals have been ineffective in the legislature, turning Question Period into a mine field for themselves rather than the government; and the media have dutifully given over their pages and air time to all the positive stuff.
I just thought that before you start feeling warm all over and pat Glenny on the back for being such a regular guy, you should now that aside from being on the right side of the issues he picked to make his stand, he can’t help but benefit politically.
GREENPEACE ESCALATES HOSTILITIES
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VICTORIA – The war in the woods was supposed to be over. The Forest Practices Code and the various land use reports produced by the now disbanded Commission on Resources and Environment should have ended what former premier Mike Harcourt called the valley-by-valley confrontations between the forest industry and environmentalists.
Instead, Greenpeace, the richest and most powerful environmental group in the world, has just escalated hostilities to an unprecedented global level.
Whatever you hear from Greenpeace over the nest few months, keep one thing in mind: at stake in this war are tens of thousands of jobs, perhaps the entire economy of British Columbia.
The aim of Greenpeace’s global declaration of war on the B.C. forest industry is to stop logging in British Columbia’s coastal rainforest. To that end, Greenpeace has dispatched two of its ships to Canada’s west coast where helicopter-mounted cameras are to take aerial photographs of logged and unlogged forests.
To give added emotional effect to its campaign, Greenpeace invented a name for the area it has targeted as the battle ground – the Great Bear Rainforest. You won’t find that name on any map, but the area comprises about 3.5 million hectares and runs roughly from Knight’s Inlet in the south, up the coast to north of Prince Rupert. The area is larger than Vancouver Island.
The decision to launch a global campaign against rainforest logging in B.C. was made at a meeting last November of campaigners from all 30 countries that have Greenpeace offices.
Locally, the campaign was kicked off with the publication in mid-April by Greenpeace of "Broken Promises – The Truth about what’s happening to British Columbia’s Forests," a report that claims nothing has changed in the industry’s forest practices.
Concurrent with Greenpeace’s efforts, a coalition of U.S.-based environmental groups have launched a campaign aimed at convincing powerful American companies to boycott any B.C. products originating in old-growth timber.
Premier Glen Clark does not retreat from his description of the environmentalists engaged in the current campaign as "enemies of British Columbia." So, the war is on, and it will be the most bitter-fought war yet.
Patrick Moore, one of the founding members of Greenpeace who has long ago broken his ties to the group and is now a director of the Forest Alliance of B.C., has entered the fray, pulling no punches.
"I am proud – most of the time – to be a founder of Greenpeace and the environmental movement. But these Greenpeacers are not the same people I worked with to end nuclear testing and prevent the extinction of whales," he says.
Moore is convinced that the environmental movement in British Columbia will not rest until the forest industry is brought to a virtual standstill.
"Greenpeace and others demand bans on clearcutting, logging old-growth and new road building. These restrictions would eliminate about 90 per cent of the annual cut. This, their advocates say, would be good for us."
I’m with Moore. To ignore the effect the implementation of Greenpeace’s demands would have on the economy is tantamount to economic suicide.
To warn you what might be in store in the coming months, here’s what Peter McAllister, founder of the B.C.-based Raincoast Conservation Society, and one of the most militant, not to say irresponsible, environmentalists has to say:
"It will just rock this government. I think there could be bloodshed, there could be mass arrests."
Choose your side.
GOOD HEALTH MORE THAN ABSENCE OF DISEASE
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VICTORIA – Officially, Dr. John Millar is British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer, but that title doesn’t begin to convey his impact on the province.
Millar is the guy who issues official advisories on immunization programs and the need to boil water. He brings us up to date on the ravages of diseases such as AIDS. But he has expanded his role far beyond that of an official health statistician.
For years, Millar has been the conscience of our health care system, a voice of sanity in what has become a political battle.
His latest annual Report on the Health of British Columbians aptly conveys Millar’s beliefs of what public health is all about.
Health is more than the absence of disease," he says in the report. "Health involves wellness in all spheres."
To that end, Millar says a thriving sustainable economy and employment opportunities are vital to the health of British Columbians. So are an adequate income, good daycare, early childhood education and affordable housing.
He urges the government to make sure that the cost of nutritious food is within the Income Assistance support allowance for each region of the province and to pass a Food Donation Act to encourage donation of edible food that would otherwise be discarded.
School meal programs, Millar says, should be extended to all children who are or should be eligible. More community programs such as community kitchens, community gardens, and participant-managed food banks should be established.
And in a political climate in which deficit and debt reduction are worshipped, Millar calls on the government to "improve the social safety net, in order to achieve a more equitable income distribution."
On improving the health of families, Millar had this to say: "Develop ways to measure the existence and availability of quality child care. Enact at least a ‘floor’ of paid parenting time (maternity leaves, paternity leaves, parental leaves, leaves to take care of an ill child at home and leaves to help a child adjust to a new school), along the lines of a current European provision to allow parents to spend time with their children."
Aboriginal peoples and minorities have always had a friend and advocate in Millar, and his report, once again, reflects his thoughts on the pressing issues facing them.
"Youth, women, Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities are groups that face chronic disadvantages in employment, including high unemployment, occupational segregation, pay inequities, and limited opportunities for career progression.
"For instance, persons with disabilities and Aboriginal peoples have unemployment rates which are more than twice the provincial average. Aboriginal peoples, as a group, are the most disadvantaged of our citizens and have the poorest overall health status."
The solutions, Millar says, are complex. The factors that determine poor health status in Aboriginal peoples, he says, are the same as those in other populations – poverty, unemployment, lack of education, inadequate housing, family violence, poor diet, smoking, and lack of empowerment.
Millar reserves his special scorn for what surely is the blackest mark on our society – child poverty. Child poverty is a problem that requires urgent attention, he says, pointing out that more than one child in five, and 56 per cent of children in single-mom households live below the poverty line.
"Most other developed nations have been able to achieve much lower rates of child poverty. In a survey of 18 countries, four had a child poverty rate of three per cent. They were Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. Canada, along with Australia, ranked 16th.
Our politicians could do worse than listen to Millar.
SIHOTA IN, PULLINGER OUT -- PROBABLY
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VICTORIA – Soon after the current legislative session winds down – about the middle of July – Premier Glen Clark will do some cosmetic surgery on his cabinet. If you’re a gambling person, here’s a safe bet: Moe Sihota will be back in cabinet.
And if you don’t mind taking a bit of a risk, put a couple of dollars on Jan Pullinger being turfed from cabinet.
The former will be greeted with hoots of derision from opposition members and sundry government critics, while the latter won’t draw much flak. In either case, Clark isn’t one to stop potential criticism from doing what he wants to do, right or wrong.
Sihota will probably emerge as minister of a new fisheries ministry, yet to be created. Fisheries has become such an important issue in British Columbia that Clark will want a separate ministry to deal with it. At present, fishery is part of Corky Evans’ Agriculture and Food Ministry.
Sihota was dumped from cabinet last year after the Liberals accused him of a conflict of interest, involving his long-time friend Herb Dhaliwal’s co-signature on a mortgage and Dhaliwal’s subsequent appointment to the B.C. Hydro board of directors.
After investigating the allegations, then Conflict Commissioner Ted Hughes ruled that Sihota wasn’t in an actual conflict of interest when he "participated" in Dhaliwal’s original appointment. Even though Sihota played a role in attracting Dhaliwal as a potential appointment, the order was actually signed by then premier Mike Harcourt.
Hughes further ruled that Sihota was neither in an actual nor an apparent conflict of interest when he participated in Dhaliwal’s reappointment to the Hydro board. Sihota signed that order.
But Hughes added that if the current definition of apparent conflict of interest had been in force at the time of Dhaliwal’s original appointment, Sihota would have been in trouble.
"I would have had no hesitation in concluding that Sihota’s participation in that appointment constituted an apparent conflict of interest," Hughes says in his report.
Sihota hasn’t taken well to his time out. Starved for publicity and something worthwhile to do, he has, on several occasions, lambasted his cabinet colleagues for running their portfolios too timidly.
Faced with the choice of having Sihota sniping from the sidelines, where he could do considerable damage, or having the opposition roast him over the coals for reappointing the controversial politician to cabinet, Clark will choose the latter.
Pullinger is another kettle of fish altogether. The Small Business and Tourism Minister She got herself -- and by association the government -- into hot water when she closed her Ladysmith constituency office and turned it over to the federal NDP for the duration of the recent election campaign.
The water temperature go even hotter when she told the legislature that she had received "the explicit approval" and "the blessing" for turning her constituency office into a federal NDP campaign headquarters from former Conflict commissioner Ted Hughes.
Hughes doesn’t suffer fools gladly, particularly when they bandy his name about in an attempt to legitimize their foolery. He said he didn’t know what the hell Pullinger was talking about.
Hughes has made it clear on numerous occasions that MLAs wishing to quote him in or outside the legislature had better have something in writing from him, supporting their claims. Pullinger had no such thing.
The last thing Clark needs is a cabinet minister further discrediting his government, especially at a time when he’s trying to get positive coverage from issues such as his stand on the Canada-U.S. salmon war.
My guess is that Pullinger will cool her ministerial heals on the backbench for a while to contemplate her rather asinine behavior.
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