Justin Trudeau dangerously underestimates British Columbians
Backlash building as voters feel lied to, taken for granted
Surprises are becoming the norm in recent elections. Last year Rachel Notley swept the NDP to an unprecedented majority in Alberta, then Justin Trudeau vaulted from third place to win a majority government in Ottawa. This year UK voters stunned pundits by voting to leave the EU, then Donald Trump defied the polls to win in the United States.
Is there a common thread in these upset victories (or losses, depending who you were rooting for)?
Columnists and historians will write volumes on why voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania abandoned the Democratic Party and voted for Trump, but I think it’s pretty simple. People rebel when they feel ignored or taken for granted. Clinton lost her chance to form government because angry voters in the so-called flyover states, tired of being neglected by business-as-usual politics in the capital, abandoned her party to send a message: screw you.
Trudeau seemed to be tuned into the Canadian version of this alienation during the federal election, and his promises tapped into the zeitgeist. His first few months in power were impressive, but recently he has acted like just another Ottawa politician – especially when it comes to the interests of big banks and Big Oil.
When Trudeau swept to power many First Nation leaders were euphoric, singing the boyish Prime Minister’s praises. A month after being sworn in, Trudeau was honoured at the annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations with a traditional blanket ceremony in front of hundreds of Aboriginal leaders. Now, less than a year later, Trudeau is being barred from Tla-o-qui-aht territory and Indigenous leaders like Caleb Behn, Chief Stewart Phillip, and Roland Willson have publicly said they feel betrayed.
First it was the approval of Site C dam permits, then a massive Malaysian gas plant in the heart of the rich Skeena salmon estuary, then the mishandling of what should have been a minor tug accident in Heiltsuk territory – which turned into a nightmare after 100,000 litres of fuel and oil escaped, poisoning a vital food harvesting area.
Now Robert Davidson, the Haida artist whose Raven design Trudeau lifted for his shoulder tattoo, has said publicly how disappointed he is in the Prime Minister. And the whiplash felt by First Nations leaders could soon spill over to B.C. voters, whose support for political parties is notoriously fickle.
Like folks in flyover America, British Columbians and First Nations are fed up with federal politicians who jet in for a few hours, make promises to get elected and then disappear when the going gets tough. The Heiltsuk, grieving the loss of their fishing grounds, have publicly challenged Trudeau to fly to Bella Bella and fulfill his promise of an oil tanker ban, “in the spirit of reconciliation”. Not only has the PM not responded, but his government is backtracking on other election promises.
If Trudeau pushes through a Kinder Morgan approval this fall, voters in B.C. will feel ignored, lied to and taken for granted; and like voters in flyover America the consequences could be far-reaching. For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of British Columbians have been using every available tool to signal to Ottawa that we don’t want an expansion of oil tankers in our fragile waters. And for more than a decade, Prime Ministers in Ottawa have patted us on the head, muttered a few platitudes and then put their finger on the scale to push unwanted projects like Enbridge and Kinder Morgan on our unwilling province. We are fed up.
A lot of people thought our new telegenic Prime Minister would follow through on his promises: kill Enbridge, legislate an oil tanker ban on the North Coast, replace the first-past-the-post system, restore integrity to the NEB process and subject Kinder Morgan to a rigorous review.
More than a year later, rumours abound that each promise will be abandoned or significantly watered down. So how badly has this backtracking tarnished Trudeau’s image in B.C.?
A new province-wide online poll by Insights West shows strong opposition to increased oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s south coast, especially among voters who supported Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in the 2015 federal election.
The poll, commissioned by Dogwood, found two-in-five voters in Metro Vancouver (where the majority of Liberal seats in B.C. are located), said they would be less likely to vote Liberal next election if the federal government approves Kinder Morgan’s oil tanker and pipeline project. Fully 31 per cent of Liberal voters say they would be less likely to support Trudeau’s party if the project goes ahead. Overall, two out of three British Columbians remain opposed to oil tanker expansion and 64 per cent of respondents who voted Liberal in 2015 also oppose.
Other key findings should send a chill up Trudeau’s spine if he intends, as rumoured, to approve the controversial proposal:
- 62 per cent of British Columbians polled agree a Kinder Morgan approval would contradict Prime Minister Trudeau’s promises on climate leadership and a “new relationship” with First Nations. Among Liberal voters in B.C., 58 per cent agree with this assessment.
- 74 per cent of British Columbians (and 78 per cent of Liberal voters) say they are less likely to support oil tanker expansion when considering the impacts on the South Coast’s 80 resident orca whales.
- A whopping four in five young voters under 35 in B.C. oppose oil tanker expansion. (Trudeau gave himself the position of Minister for Youth.)
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Prime Minister Trudeau still has a shot to get himself straightened out. To do that, he should be very careful not to emulate Stephen Harper’s hamfisted efforts to shove oil pipelines down British Columbia’s throat.
Back in 2014 when Harper’s cabinet approved Enbridge, we heard the same rationale from the governing party we are hearing now on Kinder Morgan: Enbridge was just another “issue”, and there would be three years for Harper to rebuild trust. A good theory, but in practice Conservative candidates lost almost 150,000 votes in British Columbia (they lost 24 percent of their voters in ridings with Dogwood organizing teams worked in while only losing an average of 1.7 per cent elsewhere in Canada).
What Trudeau and his advisors seem to be missing out West is that the central question for British Columbians remains (as it was for Albertans after Pierre Trudeau tried implementing the infamous National Energy Plan in the ‘80s and ’90s): Who gets to decide what’s in our best interest — Ottawa or the people who live here?
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Trudeau’s father also become intoxicated with his own popularity, blundering into a massive overreach that alienated Prairie voters for a generation. Pierre Elliott Trudeau badly miscalculated the consequences of forcing his controversial National Energy Program on an unwilling Alberta. Ironically, in trying to reboot the historically toxic Trudeau brand in Alberta, Justin Trudeau is poised to mirror his father’s mistake, by forcing a controversial oil tanker-pipeline proposal on unwilling British Columbians.
British Columbia may not be literally a “flyover” province, but many residents still feel ignored as the federal government remains fixated on placating Alberta, Quebec and the population centres in Ontario. While most British Columbians are pleased with the post-Harper tone in Ottawa, we are feeling increasingly apart from our capital, and resentful of decisions being imposed on us from afar. The slapdash Kinder Morgan review process, which failed to meet any objective standard of rigour, didn’t help.
Being lied to and taken for granted hurts, doubly so when your expectations have been raised. The rebellion of the ignored masses in flyover America surprised us all, but now is the time for our leaders to learn from the glaring mistakes that have now been made so clear. If Trudeau doesn’t smarten up and reject Kinder Morgan, or at the very least send it back for a proper review like he promised, his supporters will turn on him.
If that happens, Trudeau could become the thing all Prime Ministers fear the most: a one-term wonder.
Certainly my thoughts too though certainly more articulately stated! Just wish I was not singing to the choir as we await the next move. Perhaps there will be some release of tension when Trudeau goes ahead and fails us in BC as we change gears and ramp up for the next important moves. While walking today I thought about how I wrote to the PM, passionately telling him how I will most definitely preparing for civil disobedience in honour of our children and their children if he arrives Kinder Morgan.
If Trudeau tries to push this down our throats perhaps it is time for BC to hold a referendum on leaving the country. Non of the major parties seem to realize that the people of British Columbia are sick and tIred of this issue. We will not become Alberta’s dumping ground. We will not have our province polluted by their inability to accept that the carbon Era is over. Trudeau and the other parties can take their BS and get the he’ll out of BC.
Great facts.
I have never felt a connection to eastern Canada. They take our tax money, but spend it trying to keep Quebec in Canada. They surely to not care about B.C. They live as though it were still the 20th Century and seem to have a very hard time letting it go. I we get a proportional vote happening it will send a message to these folks that badly need a message sent. If not may Cascadia is a better idea!
To compare Trudeau’s election victory to Trump’s victory along with Brexit in the opener of your article, is quite ironic. Would you prefer to live in Harper’s Canada? I stopped reading there. As a writer, you did not serve any justice.
Time to get a Green Prime Minister! Elizabeth May is the hardest working MP in Ottawa. Her intellect is matched by the depth of her heart … She cares. She puts herself into the public domain, hosting think tanks and discussions on important topics, such as voting reform. I attended one of the evenings of her inquiry into various voting options and was deeply impressed by the large panel of people who were specialists, researchers in the field of proportional representation and various voting methods. She isn’t just looking for a photo op or opinions, she digs deep to find out what works, what doesn’t in various circumstances. She is the brightest light in Parliament! She is respectful and gracious, while still calling things as they are. Elizabeth May as Premier would be a profound way to clean up the dirty politics of Trudeau and past leaders.
Thank you for the well written post. It comes to mind however that another way to present an argument is to suggest solutions to a similar end. The oil “project” is supposedly to bring “income to all”. But let’s face it. Anyone who is informed knows full well and likely agree that is an outmoded solution to a financial need for revenue and absolutely the wrong direction for our environment.
Let’s consider an alternative. Look to other countries pursuing and succeeding in converting to alternative fuels and their handling of our changing environment and necessary change of “powering” our lives and sustaining our financial place in the world of today’s economy.
From Bloomberg in April 2016: Bloomberg delivers business and markets news, data, analysis, and video to the world, featuring stories from Businessweek and Bloomberg News.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-06/wind-and-solar-are-crushing-fossil-fuels
We have made it more than clear – out “absolutely not” position on the “oil” movement – let’s remember that in the argument of why we shouldn’t condone it, to present a viable solution.
As for what is sitting in Northern Alberta, it is well known it was a Federal “Harper gamble” to heavily invest in and develop the tar sands. We MUST convince the rest of Canada that this is not simply NO to the KM pipeline and NO to the massive increase of Tankers moving up and down out coastline but YES to recognizing Canada’s need for economic growth – but outside the outmoded “box” of fossil fuels and corporate and political control.
Wind farms and solar power conversion will create jobs in Canadian production, construction investment, manufacturing and economic growth for the whole country.
The Site C dam is another obvious mistake. Agricultural land is already shrinking and a continuing population increase will inevitably create even more demand for it.
Come on folks…. let’s not only say “NO” but “YES’ to alternative fuels. Our country is rich with land and natural resources such as wind, sunshine and water. Building an infrastructure of this kind of change can build and stronger, cleaner Canada. Working together toward this common goal can “UNITE” our beautiful country.
So Tue,no tankers on our coast is my vote
If the PM was truly interested in jobs AND the environment, he would take the 3 billion dollar fossil fuel subsidy and give it to local companies to design, build and maintain alternate energy systems. He could tell Kinder Morgan and Enbridge to change direction and provide jobs in the alternate energy sector.
I’m so disappointed. I’ve always believed that if someone was a politician if their lips were moving they were lying. I thought he was different. He’s a liar!!!! He’s a user!!!! A manipulator!!!!!!!! He’s taken advantage of the people!!!!!!!
B.C. Is already shouldering the risk of a pipeline & 60 plus tankers plying our dangerous waters why are we being asked to do even more; a lot more –400 tankers more. The status quo now is the pipeline we have & it serves our economy well enough now ; except the price of oil is down . It puzzles me why the govt of Canada is willing to risk the thriving economy of B.C. for a dying industry & some short term jobs. The oil companies are the big winners here as long as they expand their infrastructure they receive huge tax breaks –I mean huge. The argument could be made that Canada is loosing huge sums of money from tax rebates the oil companies will receive if this pipeline goes through. Canada will gain very little from this pipeline.
What is this powerful hold these oil companies have on our govt. We now have a contingency fund in case of an oil spill –funded by us . Why does the taxpayer pay anything shouldn’t it funded by the oil companies.
The bottom line is an oil spill will devastate BC’s economy & hurt a province that’s well on its way to being the cleanest economy in the world & like his father before him Trudeau thinks were expendable.