Never a Better Time to Fight Back

Well, this is it.

This, as they say, is the moment we've all been waiting for. As biologist Alexandra Morton embarks this week on a historic walk for wild salmon down Vancouver Island, her journey serves as a symbol to the people of this province that the game is truly afoot. Now is the time to reclaim this place we call British Columbia from those who have stolen it from us.

Following years of frustration for a small group committed British Columbians - toiling in obscurity to rouse their fellow citizens and governments to action on numerous vital issues...After myriad red flags unheeded, wanton environmental disregard, excessive and oppressive corporate control over our public policy - after all this, a window. A door - open if just a crack. And the people who led us here need all of our help to kick it down. For the first time in years, that seems surprisingly possible.

You see, by taking from the vast majority of the public to give to the tiny minority of the wealthy and powerful, our government leaders run the risk of eventually pissing off everyone.

And that is precisely what has happened.

Take your pick - just about every Canadian now has an axe to grind with Gordon Campbell and Stephen Harper. Let me list just a few: cuts to arts, youth sports, education, health care; tax cuts for the rich, while levying new burdens on us regular folks; the perpetual disregard for our less fortunate souls; privatizing or breaking up virtually every public resource and asset of value - from BC Rail to BC Hydro; the total neglect of our wild salmon and the impacts of Norwegian fish farms on our environment; the giving away and destroying of our most precious natural resources - from private river power, to Site "C" Dam, to turning lakes into toxic mining dumps; refusing to get serious about climate change by paving blacktop over farmland while public transit funding languishes...See anything you recognize? Of course you do. Unless you happen to be a billionaire or close friend of Gordon Campbell, in which case, you'd probably prefer things to remain as they are.

4 big opportunities to fight back: #1 Pipeline, Tankers

Rather than a single watershed moment over the past several years where the momentum has suddenly shifted in the public's favour, there have been a series of milestones, one after another, each building toward the opportunity now before us.

That said, if I had to point to a single moment where the ground really shifted, it was at a recent press conference in Vancouver, organized by the Coastal First Nations and their many supporters. The 150 groups and individuals represented - First Nations from Northern Alberta to Kitimat, conservation groups, and prominent Canadians - joined together to tell the world they will not stand for the proposed Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline and supertankers on our precious coast.

It wasn't so much what they said, but the way they said it that struck a chord with everyone in the room. It was the deep, palpable resolve that underlined every word. They were not demanding to be consulted and accommodated - they were marching right past the usual window dressing and simply saying: "No. This pipeline will not be built. Those ships will not set sail. Period." And they had the full force of the coastal business community, leading Canadians, local and international environmental groups behind them. To Big Oil and their sycophantic servants in government, this must have been a scary moment. And as the national media coverage rightly observed, the stage is now set for the biggest environmental battle in the province's history - and this time, for once, the people hold the cards.

#2 Private Power, Site "C"

In one fell swoop, earlier this week, Gordon Campbell managed to undermine his whole private power program and tick off one of his most historically safe constituencies. By committing to build the final mega-dam on the Peace River, Campbell removed all doubt that BC simply doesn't need the costly private river diversion projects he has been pushing on the public, handing our watersheds over to the likes of General Electric. Unlike these seasonal projects that only produce power when we don't need it, Site "C" would add a huge block of year-round firm energy to BC's public power system.

Only, we don't even need that. You see, contrary to the fibs Campbell has been telling the public, BC is already self-sufficient in electricity - especially if we get serious about conservation. But if Site "C" is an unnecessary environmental blight, then private river power projects are an outright scam. And that message is getting through to more British Columbians every day. Witness the record turnouts to public meetings on proposed projects - from Kaslo to Pitt Meadows to Powell River. The public has shown it is squarely against private power projects and ready to stand up for their public power and watersheds.

Now, a word about Site "C". People in the Peace region have a persistent feeling of being ignored by us city folk and our political and corporate nabobs in Victoria and Vancouver. And they're right. From the stress on their communities from aggressive natural gas exploitation in recent years, to the enormous price they have paid to build giant dams that service the rest of the province - they have been used and abused for far too long.

My family, for instance, lost our ranch on the Peace River - the Gold Bar Ranch - to build the first of these behemoths, WAC Bennett Dam. So I know a little about how folks feel about Site "C". But my family continued to vote Socred decades after the dam, and for whatever party of the Right federally and provincially thereafter. This is because: 1. These governments at least largely did what they did with the overall public interest in mind; and 2. In Peace Country you just don't vote NDP. Which is why in this past election, the independent candidate in the Peace River North riding captured 32% of the vote - an astonishing and unprecedented result that showed just how disenchanted folks are up there with their provincial government. When the conservative party of record is in real danger of losing the Peace, there's something blowing in the wind.

These folks have battled and stopped Site "C" twice before; I wouldn't put it past them to do it again...This time they could use a little help from all of us.

#3 Vander Zalm and the HST

The HST has produced a crack in the political dam. Over the next several months it will come to be understood not only as referendum on an unfair tax to which well over 80% of the province is outright opposed - but as a referendum on Gordon Campbell's leadership. The rift over the HST is particularly perilous to Campbell because of the people on the other side - beginning with former Socred Premier Bill Vander Zalm. What it highlights is the division growing within the Right, separating veteran fiscal conservatives from their neo-liberal Fraser Institute heirs, who have spent the past decade undoing generations of Socred initiatives - privatizing BC Rail, breaking up WAC Bennett's crowning legacy, BC Hydro, and handing the party of the Right over to global corporations, to the detriment of the BC public and environment.

Rarely do you get a "do-over" in the midst of an election term - the chance to recognize a mistake and rectify it. But the HST presents just such an opportunity. For make no mistake - at a historic low in popularity, both for his party and as a leader - Gordon Campbell is vulnerable. And his political career does not survive a successful referendum and defeat of the HST. Either he steps down or he goes the way of Caesar on the Senate floor. Either result would call for champagne - not sparkling wine, but the real stuff. And if you want to experience that sweet, effervescent taste like I do, you'll get behind the movement to scrap the HST.

#4 Salmon Farms - Alex Leads the Way

Much more will be written and videographed in these pages about Alexandra Morton's historic walk for wild salmon, so I won't go into detail here...Except to say that after more than a decade of tireless work, victory is in sight for Alex and her supporters. And victory means getting open net salmon farms out of our coastal waters - to protect our embattled wild salmon.

The momentum swelling on this issue is enormous: from the increasing vulnerability of the global salmon farming industry from environmental disasters in Chile, Norway, Scotland, and Canada; to the global media attention now on the subject; to the dumping of farmed salmon by some of its biggest retailers; to seminal legal victories in Canadian courts: Alex and company are kicking butt these days.

The same resolve that emanated from First Nations leaders in opposition to the proposed pipeline and tankers was evident last week in Chief Bob Chamberlin's statement to the media as the certification hearing began for his historic class action lawsuit, suing governments over the impacts of fish farms on his people's traditional territory: "We will not stop. We will protect the wild salmon and we will protect the environment of our people."

So Alex's march takes place against the backdrop of all these developments - and just as an unprecedented federal judicial inquiry gets underway to investigate the causes of the collapse of our Fraser River sockeye. What a way for the public to demand the Cohen Inquiry thoroughly examine the impacts of salmon farms - by joining in Alex's march and final chorus in Victoria on May 8.

So from the Kootenays to Campbell River; from the Peace Valley to Haida Gwaii - let our free and democratic voices ring out and shake the very foundations of our Legislature and Parliament. Let them hear from us, the people. Join Alex Morton on her historic march. Rally behind First Nations and their bold stances on fish farms, pollution from mines, pipelines and tankers. Sign Bill Vander Zalm's petition - heck, call the local campaign office and see how you can help. Tell your political representatives what you expect from them. Write letters to your paper, call your favorite radio show, go to a rally or townhall meeting. Pick up a placard and hit the streets...Whatever you do, get involved. Because now is your moment to truly make a difference.

The stakes have never been higher. Let us not waste this historic opportunity.