Andrew Weaver To Resign As BC Green Party Leader

radiorahim wrote:

Weaver has been horribly right-wing on minimum wage, card check certification in union organizing drives and on workers changing unions in the construction industry where the CLAC has many sweetheart deals with employers.

Here's a look at the contradictions of the BC Greens under Andrew Weaver from a 2017 Tyee article. 

“I’m not concerned about Christy Clark getting back in.” — Green Party campaign chair Adam Olsen (one of three BC Green MLAs) on vote-splitting with the NDP

It’s not easy being Green — especially you are under serious scrutiny for the first time and a lot of surprising contradictions and hypocrisy come to light.

Do the Green Party and leader Andrew Weaver really want to see Premier Christy Clark’s BC Liberals thrown out of office? In addition to Olsen’s comment this month, Weaver voted for two BC Liberal budgets and voiced a robocall 2009 election endorsement of the BC Liberals.

Would the Greens actually restrict currently unlimited foreign political donations when Weaver was personally soliciting them on Facebook last year? Or ban corporate donations after accepting $54,000 from businesses in 2013 but now rejecting them?

Why did climate change scientist Weaver offer qualified support for an oil refinery in Kitimat to process Alberta oil sands bitumen transported there by pipeline to then go by tankers to Asia? 

And why didn’t Weaver support a treatment project to end dumping raw sewage off Victoria’s coast? Or back the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council public transit plan in the 2015 plebiscite? ...

Here’s Vancouver Sun reporter Brian Morton’s question and Olsen’s full answer: “Asked if he believed a Green surge might split the anti-Liberal vote and re-elect the Liberals, Olsen said: ‘I’m not concerned about Christy Clark getting back in. Democracy requires a multitude of voices and ideas.’”  Seems pretty clear to me — Olsen only became “concerned” when called out on Twitter.

And the Green Party replied to my question about whether it and Olsen were “not concerned about Christy Clark getting back in” by stating: “We agree with Adam that democracy requires a multitude of voices. ...

I also asked about Weaver’s closeness to the BC Liberals, voting for their first two budgets this term and endorsing them with this recorded message sent to Victoria-Beacon Hill voters in 2009 in an effort to defeat then BC NDP leader Carole James: 

“My name is Andrew Weaver... I endorse premier Campbell and the BC Liberals for their courage in fighting global warming… and I strongly urge you to vote for Dallas Henault, your local BC Liberal candidate… Let’s re-elect the BC Liberals….”

The Green Party answer, conveyed by press secretary Jillian Oliver, is: “It is well known that Andrew worked on Gordon Campbell’s climate leadership team that was responsible for introducing the first Climate Action Plan into BC. ...

Let’s get to bitumen and businessman David Black’s proposal to build an oil refinery in Kitimat. ...

“Rail is bad news, dilbit in the water is bad news, dilbit on land over rivers and streams is potentially very bad news,” Weaver told the Victoria Times-Colonist. “Obviously as the Green Party [MLA], I’d prefer to keep it in the ground as much as possible and start to invest sooner than later into the low-carbon economy of tomorrow, but I’m pragmatic and I recognize at some point one may need to develop a compromise and a compromise solution is one that would actually give jobs in B.C.” ...

The newspaper headline, admittedly not written by Weaver, said: “Green MLA Andrew Weaver backs David Black’s refinery proposal.”

But it’s Weaver’s own direct quotes that led the editor to write that headline, statements like this about Black: “I think he’s done this for the right reasons,” Weaver said. “He’s a B.C. boy and he wants to keep dilbit out of coastal waters because it’s nasty stuff.” ...

Let’s move on — to changing political financing laws in what the New York Times called “the Wild West” — where foreign nationals can donate unlimited amounts of money to any B.C. political party. Weaver has demanded changes to ban that practice as well as stopping corporate and union donations, as has the New Democratic Party.

“B.C. must stop selling out to corporate and foreign interests that have exploited the province’s resources and left our cities unaffordable,” Weaver said in March.

But on his personal Facebook page on Feb. 15, 2016, Weaver made this appeal for foreign money: “A fundraising plea for the 2017 campaign... My friends anywhere in the world can donate any amount of money any time. We do not have restrictions in BC on out of province donations. 

“Nor is there a restriction on the maximum you can donate if you are a Canadian resident. Thank you in advance for considering this. Please also tell your friends and relatives that now is a truly incredible time for us to change politics forever in this province. Thank you. Andrew.” ...

If Weaver had not repeatedly ripped the BC NDP for not agreeing to unilateral disarm against a BC Liberal Party that raised $16 million last year, most of it corporate and a considerable amount foreign, his own appeal might not seem so offensive. But Weaver’s holier than thou public statements contradict his private appeals for foreign donations. ...

So, I asked, will the Green Party return the more than $54,000 in corporate donations received in 2013?  The short answer: “None of that money is being used for the 2017 campaign.” Of course not — it was already spent. ...

Why doesn’t Weaver support the federal government plan for a treatment plan in Victoria to end the dumping of raw sewage out of a pipeline into the ocean?

In 2014 Weaver said: “There’s no social license for the present plan. They’ve lost the public trust on this.” 

The Green response: “The proposed plant was too costly for too little benefit. Smaller scale projects are possible that would cost less but do more to address Victoria’s sewage treatment needs.”

Perhaps, but three years later and Victoria is only now about to see construction of a $765-million wastewater treatment plant after years of delay thanks to naysayers.

If not advocating for immediate sewage treatment, surely Weaver got behind the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council plan to dramatically improve public transit in the 2015 regional plebiscite? Err — no he didn’t. ...

Weaver did not endorse the “Yes” side in the plebiscite even though Green Party Vancouver city councilor Adriane Carr and other Greens did, along with labour, business, health, student and community groups. ...

So if Weaver and the Green Party don’t stand for some things because they don’t like the question or the plan or the odds, what do they believe in?

One of the Green Party candidates — Robert Mellalieu in Kelowna-West — states on the party website that: “I was always a Conservative (B.C. Liberal). I thought the right wing is where business owners belong. So I fully expected my son to come to the ‘right’ conclusion.”

“To my amazement, he picked the Green Party. I questioned him on the economics, on the future goals, long term plans, for hours. He was right. It took a 16-year-old with the unbiased view of the world to show me that I was a Green,” Mellalieu concluded. ...

That led me to ask where the Greens stand on the political spectrum — are candidates like Mellalieu, a former federal Conservative and BC Liberal, right-wing or not?  The Green answer: “BC Greens all share common values, based on our 6 principles — participatory democracy, sustainability, social justice, respect for diversity, ecological wisdom and non-violence.

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/04/25/Green-Party-Contradictions/