What makes me sad about Tuesday night's election in B.C. is that I know a lot of folks that really care about the people and the planet had their hearts broken. The candidates and their supporters that I saw at the BC NDP election night party were a group of people who I know wanted to make this province a better place -- it was hard to watch them leave the convention centre with sad faces.
Today's Best-of-the-Net video features Canadian music star Dan Mangan, joining the growing chorus of voices opposed to the tar sands pipeline and tanker plans of Enbridge and Kinder Morgan. This video was produced by Tanker Free BC.
The proposed tar sands pipelines have emerged as major issues in the B.C. election. For more coverage of the B.C. campaign, visit our special elections page here.
About this video
RISING TIDE MEMBERS TO EMBARK ON FRACKING TOUR OF NORTHERN BC TO UNCOVER TRUE COSTS OF LNG
Members of the Rising Tide activist collective are departing Vancouver, on a tour of northern BC to expose the true costs of fracking and support frontline community resistance to pipeline expansion in rural areas.
The 8 day tour will visit communities that have invited Rising Tide to share and gather information, opinions, and stories about fracking. These include Kamloops, Prince George, Smithers, Moricetown and the Unis'tot'en camp of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, Burns Lake, Fort. St. John, and Fort Nelson.
Today 36 Norwegian organizations sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stoltenberg expressing opposition to development of Canadian tar sands by Statoil (the Norwegian state is majority shareholder of Statoil).
Signatories include not only environmental organizations, but a broad public spectrum, including, appropriately, many youth organizations. It is encouraging that Norwegian youth press their government to stop supporting tar sands development, given the fact that Norway saves much of its oil earnings for future generations and given the fact that Norway is not likely among the nations that will suffer most from climate change.
Canada once had a vibrant manufacturing sector, growing economy and about 20 oil tankers per year passing through Burrard Inlet in B.C., mostly delivering refined products to coastal communities. Today, Canada has a declining manufacturing sector, growing unemployment, and over 70 crude oil tankers per year transiting Burrard Inlet. What happened?
The tar sands happened. Canada took the lure of globalization and raw resource export. Over a decade ago, the world's largest oil companies decided to exploit the black bitumen tar buried under Alberta's boreal forest, and to ship it from Canada with minimal local economic benefit.
"We do not believe any proposal should transform Vancouver into a major port for oil export." With these words, B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix marked Earth Day on Monday by explaining his party's opposition to Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion plans.
This announcement was welcome news -- a nice Earth Day Kinder (Morgan) surprise. Unfortunately, the B.C. Liberals and Christy Clark have yet to make their position on Kinder Morgan and the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal clear at all.
