The view from Pete

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GenX. My politics are clearly left and I’m tired of compromise with the neo-liberal right. They’ve driven a wedge with their money based centrist politics. We used to be able to do great things and we can again; we just need the leadership to do so; and folks to say as much.

  • Just when you thought the BC Liberals couldn’t sink any lower..

    President Joe Biden just signed a bill that allows foreign flagged cruise ships to bypass a foreign port on their way to another US port. In english, this means that a cruise ship is no longer going to stop in Vancouver or Victoria on their way from Seattle to Alaska.

    This is meant as a temporary measure thanks to the Canadian federal cruise ship ban at our ports here in response to the pandemic.

    This is truly a setback. Our Premier didn’t think it would come to this and had misjudged the resolve of Alaska based legislators who really wanted their cruise ship industry back.

    So be it. Temporary, we’re told.

    On cue it seems, the provincial opposition party launches a salvo at the NDP effectively blaming the provincial government here for losing 20k jobs.

    What.

    I get the partisan sniping, etc. But what the BC Liberals have done is a willful misread on what happened to fire a grossly partisan political cheap shot. They were cheering on this bad news as a win. Who does this?

    They do.

    I mean, what’s the position here for the BC Liberals? That the NDP should have pressured Ottawa into a premature port re-opening for cruise ship despite them being known incubators when an outbreak happens; now with covid19? In a rush to score a political cheap shot, they’ve revealed themselves to be horrible people.

    In the last term of office, the minority government of the NDP/Green CASA deal, the BC Liberals behaved themselves relatively well once the pandemic set in. They knew how dangerous and politically stupid it would be to try and politicize pandemic related events. Free from the constraints of a minority parliament, idiotology pours on in from the BC Liberal caucus.

    The Federal government put in place a cruise ship ban in 2020 as the pandemic set it. It was renewed in February of 2021 to last another year.

    We’re not out of this pandemic and neither are the west coastal US States (including Alaska). By pushing for this legislation, they’re taking their own risks; cruising was halted for a reason. But I don’t answer for them nor will I defend them.

    But the BC Liberals have to answer here. They tried to push a regional reopening last year just as the initial wave subsided; a proposal that if accepted would have seen astronomical infection rates as we weren’t ready for that. No vaccine, and the full strength of the virus was just beginning to build.

    Imagine if we had taken that bad advice then? Or been pressured into pressuring Ottawa into a premature re-opening of our ports now? West coast ports aren’t the only ones suffering; this is a huge blow to the east coast tourist trade too. Halifax gains billions of dollars in tourist spending cash that sustain the city’s businesses and jobs. They’re hurting too.

    The BC Liberals would blame John Horgan for that.

    I want this pandemic gone like anyone else, but I still take it seriously. Its not as if by reopening every business and restoring concerts and every venue that covid19 goes away – it does not. If we’re not better prepared, such a premature re-opening would turn to a catastrophic shut down; and unnecessary loss of life.

    Todd Stone and his BC Liberal opposition front bench are as useless in offering constructive criticism of government policy as they were when he was in government.

    Taking some ghoulish victory lap as they seem to be doing on this cruise ship bypass law from America because it politically hurts the NDP is about as bad as it gets. Todd Stone needs to resign from politics and never return.

    What a shameful, juvenile display he and his party have put on. May they never govern this province again.

    My2bits.

  • This isn’t sitting well with me. At all.

    Before I get into the gears of my post, I want to be clear that I am no expert on first nation reconciliation and UNDRIP; certainly as it pertains to natural resources on land controlled by a first nation.

    I also want to stress that I am not first nation. My family lineage extends into northern Europe so far that a recent DNA test from one of those ancestry-type websites proved me to be over 75% viking.

    So what is upsetting me? The seemingly illegal blockades and protests at Fairy Creek on the south Island here in BC. Why is that? Because the first nation who controls the land has signed deals with a forestry company and government – in a joint decision making exercise that is largely consistent with how deals ought to be done under BC’s UNDRIP legislation.

    Where did this begin? The Pacheedaht leadership signed a deal.

    Enter the environmentalists.

    To be sure, many of BC’s more well known movements have large buy-in from various first nation peoples. There are strong cases to be made about protecting the land from gross exploitation and from damaging plots of land that have major cultural and/or spiritual significance to a particular first nation. I get that..I might not understand why, but its not my place to adjudicate the legitimacy of such a claim.

    The argument from environmentalists is that the plots of land subject to a logging proposal are in old-growth areas. They claim that it is the last stand of major old growth forested areas on the island. I’ll take that as granted only because I don’t have the information to dispute it.

    What I have learned is that from the 1200 hectares of Fairy Creek, 200 hectares is accessible to Teal Jones (the forest company) but only plan to log 20 hectares.

    https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/teal-jones-addresses-fairy-creek-logging-controversy-1.5378722

    Worlds collide.

    The The Pacheedaht have clearly indicated that they wish the project to go ahead as they can rightly use the revenue for the benefit of their community. UNDRIP and reconciliation means that they should and must have a shared decision making role in this. So why are environmentalists determined to stop them from catching up here?

    When the protesters refused to dismantle their blockades, the Pacheedaht and Teal Jones sought out a court injunction to remove them.

    Before the enforcement order was granted, the elected and hereditary chief signed a letter demanding the protesters and other 3rd party activists leave the area. This matter itself has drawn criticism as it turns out that the Pacheedaht and government were in communications with this letter; and the protesters have seized upon this to de-legitimize the first nation’s demand.

    Now, I don’t know what was said between government and Pacheedaht officials, but I can reasonably assure you that if the first nation leadership felt they were being manipulated or cajoled into writing certain things in their statement, they likely would have gone full-court press with outrage. For the environmentalist side of this, to attempt to nullify what their elected and hereditary leadership say – well that’s a whole side of colonialism that I didn’t see coming.

    The Pacheedaht have their own negotiators and legal team who have served them well, and UNDRIP calls us to respect the shared decision making that rolls out of that process. EVEN if you don’t like it.

    There are some privileged white protesters who come from their well-off, upper middle class neighborhood in the big city who would demand a total halt to logging regardless of the damage done to the small communities who rely on the jobs and revenue from this renewable resource.

    There is an attempt to paint this in the same light as the 1993 ‘war in the woods’ that had everyone upset and most certainly did not have first nations buy-in.

    Forestry has gone through major changes in the last three decades and is still in flux. It isn’t the job producer it used to be.

    We’re at a place where more and more the first nations rising up to take part in an economy and decision making process that has excluded them for our entire history of European ‘settlement’ of the west. A decision is made to log and process less than 2% of the trees in the Fairy Creek basin – which is traditional territory of the Pacheedaht.

    I’m pro-NDP and make no apologies for that. I know that many in our party and support base are philosophically opposed to clear cut logging and logging old growth forests. But many of us also are big supporters of UNDRIP and reconciliation; doing the right thing that is. The Pacheedaht forestry deal might end up doing all of the above; logging in old growth areas and a business deal struck by the first nation in question.

    The thing about respecting the independence and the right of first nations to make their own arrangements and deals as the Pacheedaht have done is key to UNDRIP, even if we don’t personally like what that might look like. After centuries of being held back and told “you can’t do that” by powerful white leaders, I’m certain that they’ve rightly heard enough from you and I.

    To close, I’m attaching a set of images and screenshots related to this file; more powerful white people telling the Pacheedaht what to do.

    My2bits

  • Criticizing covid19 countermeasures should have a test applied

    In order for you to have a valid argument to make on covid19 countermeasures, you first have to accept that covid19 is real and deadly; that it’s a dangerous pandemic that must be met with all available measures to mitigate loss of life as best we know how. Because for you do deny the science or medical information that validates the existence of covid19 puts you on the opposite side of every medical community member on earth.

    Imagine if you will, that there is a bridge off in the distance. Its old and some say it should be replaced or repaired – at high cost. In doing so, there will be disruptive traffic pattern changes and detours; nobody would enjoy those measures at all. But it needs to be done if the old bridge is to be dealt with.

    So you hire some 10 structural engineers to evaluate the true state of the bridge and determine the best plan forward.

    Nine of them conclude that the bridge has between 6-9 years of safe usage left before its unsafe to use if nothing changes, that it might collapse and kill anyone on the bridge deck at the time. Those nine recommend a mix of replacement and (major) repairs to upgrade the safety levels to an acceptable level.

    One says that everything is fine. You’ve got many decades of safe usage ahead.

    Who do you listen to?

    In the case of covid19, there is virtually no disagreement in the scientific and medical community that the ailment is deadly and needs to be dealt with quickly. But its not unanimous. There hold outs who argue a variety conspiracy theories that covid19 is fake. This segment is less than 1% of the medical/scientific community. Or, less than one of a one hundred structural engineers in our above scenario.

    Now, its fair to argue that one jurisdiction’s pandemic countermeasures are insufficient to whatever degree your expertise level can speak with any authority on. Or blow out some opinion on how you think your government has failed you. Cool, that’s your opinion. But you must first agree that covid19 is real and a lot of people are going to die (…already have died) if we don’t act – or slacken our efforts prematurely.

    But if you’re going to argue that covid19 is fake and that everyone should just flout the emergency rules because of a bonkers conspiracy theory, then I have zero problems with the state answering your misinformation with fines or worse. Because what you offer isn’t an opinion, its foisting a dangerous advocacy to break laws no different than yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre. Your calls to break rules could get people killed.

  • Paid sick leave isn’t urgent because its a contest to see who can deliver it first, its urgent because its necessary and right.

    There seems to be a rush to claim credit for a program nobody can figure out how its paid for or who’s jurisdiction it is. If you came to me for that answer, sorry, I don’t have it. But what I do have is an idea that might work – if politicians are ready to put aside partisan differences and work across jurisdictional boundaries.

    Healthcare is a shared jurisdiction. Labour laws are provincial (in industries that are provincially regulated). Unemployment benefits are federal. Surely there’s enough room to slap together something that can the provinces can deliver that the federal government can pay for. It needs to be a national program though; and spare me the provincial rights lecture. It needs to be federal because at that level, it has national implications that no matter where you live, you can take a day off, sick, and not worry so much about paying rent or groceries. More to the point, the pressure to come to work – risking the health of your co-workers, eases off. The current discourse today is centered around the covid19 pandemic, but this is not the only reason to talk about it.

    Yes, there is medical EI – those who lose their work for extended time and apply for EI benefits. But there’s no program for those who lose a day’s pay for a rotten cold, or a flu which wouldn’t ordinarily trigger medical EI. That’s where paid sick leave comes in.

    BC has done more and accommodated more than any provincial jurisdiction in Canada; and they’re being torn apart for not making any allowance for paid sick leave. Maybe that’s a bridge too far, financially. BC doesn’t have its own currency and cannot print cash – MMT isn’t possible for a subordinate jurisdiction like a province or an American state. The potential costs for such a program would be pricey, but thankfully the EI fund runs at a surplus – when the federal govt isn’t raiding its funds.

    EI is how we pay for it, provincial workers compensation departments are how its distributed so that front line workers in any location never have to worry about going broke because they’re sick.

    All that’s left is the political will to get it done.

    We’re waiting.

    my2bits

  • The last mile is the hardest.

    We have gone from zero to deploying millions of vaccines in a global pandemic in less than two years. Nobody assumed that everything would perfectly go to plan, nor that the plans were perfect.

    This has been quite a difficult journey and a lot of good people lost their lives as a result.

    But if you had told me a few years ago that we would go from discovery to mass vaccination campaigns in less than two years, I wouldn’t have believed you.

    So here we are. Thanks to the sacrifice of thousands of front line trades, essential service workers and first responders. We’re climbing out of a global pandemic in relatively quick order.

    But we’re not there yet. Every countermeasure enacted upon by emergency order through the authorities counts on us doing what is required of us – regardless of it’s inconvenience.

    Nobody is enjoying themselves here and we all want to live normally again. But these measures, however imperfect as they may be, are essential to getting to the other side of this.

    So every time someone decides on their own that they’re done with covid19 and fling reason and common sense aside for self interest is another crack in our defences.

    Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy, and nobody likes to shame or ridicule another for their beliefs. But for this to work and cross that line at the end, we must continue this marathon slog to get there.

    I’m tired of covid19 too. But covid19 doesn’t care what I think. If I am careless and selfish with my actions, I risk the lives of my crewmates at work, strangers around town, or the lives of those at home, and that is a price I am not willing to take.

    Its a mask. I’ll wear it. Its a vaccine, I’ll take whatever is offered to me. I’ll do what it takes to go that last mile; to establish that herd immunity so that covid19 has no place left to go.

    There will be plenty of time to digest how this all played out. Things that worked well, things that didn’t. Now is not the time to pander, play politics, or undermine the hard work and sacrifice of those who have given so much.

    We’re almost through this. Don’t drop the ball now folks.

    my2bits

  • Endorsement of Lisa Marie Barron

    My name is Peter Kelly (he/him) and I have been a resident of Nanaimo since 1997. I’m a past president of the Nanaimo area ferry workers union, a single parent, concerned citizen and I offer my full support and endorsement of Lisa Marie Barron for the Federal NDP nomination for the seat of Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

    I have known Lisa for over 10 years and was an enthusiastic supporter in her campaign for school district trustee in the previous local elections and I feel that Lisa is the right kind of leadership we need today. 

    Lisa’s generosity, compassion, empathy and honest talk is lacking in Ottawa and absent here today. Lisa is the right choice and I encourage all NDP members to follow me and support Lisa in her bid to become the next Member of Parliament from our region.

    You can see this amazing candidate for yourself and follow for updates here: facebook.com/ElectLisaMarieBarron
    Lisa’s website is here: https://www.lisamariebarron.ca/

    If you are not yet a member of the NDP and would like to in order to support Lisa, please click here for an online membership application.

    My2bits

  • BC Liberals (still) have a misogyny problem

    North Cowichan Deputy Mayor, and long time BC Liberal activist, Tek Manhas has some explaining to do.

  • The appreciation for Donald Trump

    No, its not what you think.

    So let me get one thing clear right now. Donald Trump is a fascist who tried to steal power by subverting what’s supposed to be a mundane transfer of power from one President to another.

    But he’s worse than that.

    His entire ‘governing’ legacy is tragic story of the absurd.

    Far from being the voice of the little guy, the candidate to ‘drain the swamp’; Donald Trump was solely the voice of himself and his cabal of insiders – most of all his family. Donald Trump is the swamp he campaigned against in 2016.

    His campaign was right out of Mein Kampf, playing group against group in 2016. His skillful use of racist dog-whistle politics gathered a coalition of hate around him that in the strategic concentrations where they voted – flipped electoral math on its head.

    Donald Trump brought together a disgruntled and poor voting block (who have real economic grievances) along side those whose cultural hatreds towards hispanic peoples and blacks were in large enough numbers that when pooled with traditional conservative voters of the Republican Party were enough to win the election.

    That’s the simple version of how he got into office in the first place.

    How he governed as the 45th President will be a fascinating tale told in court rooms as he is held to account for his crimes against America; and there are many.

    But what I appreciate about Trump – in the most sincere way – is that he and his movement are defined by the hooligans, thugs and terrorists that tried to violently overthrow the US government to stop President-Elect Biden from being certified as the winner of a landslide election that he won fairly. It wasn’t close.

    Trump and his ilk took issue with math itself; failed to understand the laws and the constitution, and violated the law and order narrative told by his party for the last 60 years.

    Trump and his terrorists launched an attack on the capitol that can only be rivalled by actions taken by the old Confederacy in the US Civil War – a secessionist regime which split from America in its quest to defend its ‘states right’ to maintain slavery. That is quite the company to keep.

    And there has to be a reckoning. There was the Nuremburg Trials after the last world war that held former Nazi regime officials, party officials, SS officials for their actions and crimes against humanity. So there must be a great accountability for the Trump regime and those who profited from his ‘leadership’.

    Will the Republicans learn? Hard to say. Every time they lose an election, they resolve to take their party further right because they feel it didn’t act or campaign conservative enough.

    After Jimmy Carter won the Whitehouse in 1976, Republicans went far right and teamed up with Christian Conservatives to gain the votes needed to win in 1980 under Reagan. When that coalition fell apart in 1992, they regrouped and went further right in 2000 with neo-conservatives under George W. Bush. When Barack Obama won the Whitehouse in 2008, the Republicans went yet further into the right wing fringe with the Tea Party movement.

    And then Donald Trump launched his campaign in 2016 with his famous racist speech attacking Mexicans. Finally, the Republicans tapped into the last vestige of crazy right wing voters.

    How much further right will the Republican party go before they fall off the edge. Will this be a test for the American right. Its happened before when a major party found itself in an existential crisis; the old “Whig Party” who served up several Presidents prior to 1860 blew apart in favour of the Democratic/Republican tilt. Internally, the Democratic Party who used to be the racist, rural party that gave safe haven to KKK leaning folks found its spine and under President Johnson signed the voter rights act.

    The Republican Party as drifted so far to the right that it would have rejected candidates like Reagan or Eisenhower or Bush. Its fallen off the cliff of what is reasonably expected of parties that exist within a democratic, liberty loving country.

    They embraced fascism.

    Worse, the darkest elements of Christian Nationalism (who are the core of the white-supremacist movement) rose to high positions in the ‘MAGA’ world. To them, Donald Trump was Jesus…and a whole lot of evangelic leaders followed along with that misguided idea. That the most corrupt, conflicted, greedy and self absorbed political figurehead (Trump) was the symbol of the onset of the final days and the Biblically foretold tribulation.

    No. Trump is a fraud there too.

    Substantially, Joe Biden is far more pious and religiously aligned than Trump. BY A LONG SHOT. It was a permission structure that opened the potential of a small segment of Trump-hostile Republicans to vote Biden – who might have stayed home otherwise. Why certain evangelicals stuck with Trump is beyond reason – even in any biblical sense.

    So much for ‘render unto Caesar what is his’, etc (Mark 12:17).

    Evangelical Christianity has now defined itself as a political movement that is intolerant, undemocratic and hyper-judgmental. Ask any one of them and they’ll tell you that only their brand of Christianity is the truth and the light – any only their interpretation of the Bible is valid; they installed themselves as the gatekeeper of heaven.

    That’s not faith or religion. That’s a cult.

    That’s not the Jesus I’ve known. But then again. These folks have made Donald Trump into the messiah. The fact that he wasn’t supported by a majority of voters and lost an election to Biden is the square peg that didn’t fit into their round hole. They weren’t prepared to accept this as a possibility; so they – with Trump, called the election a fraud and took sides with the terrorists’ that tried to overthrow the US government on January 6.

    Now that every legal avenue to dispute the election result is exhausted – and a total lack of evidence to the contrary, no electoral fraud – it was a free and fair election, some still align with Trump and the mythology of the stolen election.

    The damage of Trump and his ‘evangelical’ base to American democracy will heal in time; but not before a full accounting and appropriate justice is rendered. What happens next is that the Republican Party might fold and a new conservative, coherent party may rise in its wake.

    But what I appreciate about Trump is that he ripped the scab off and exposed parts of American society that are infected with the poison of hatred and that is the first step towards healing.

    Trump is a terrible person who is rotten to the core. But further judgement on his character and/or legal misdeeds will be up to the justice system. For the rest of us, we’ll interpret the Trump legacy for what it is; a blight on humanity for all that it represents and hopefully the turning point to return to better days ahead.

    My2bits

  • Every party should root out bigots in their ranks

    Least of all, one that markets itself as left-of-centre.

    Today we’re learning of the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the UK Labour Party caucus pending an investigation of his conduct regarding internal processes of handling incidents of antisemitism.

    I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the internal mechanisms of the Labour Party or the viability of these allegations.

    But it sure strikes me as odd that a (former) leader whose brand is literally as a stand against racism and bigotry would be accused of such internally. To me, this looks more like a well orchestrated smear by internal opponents who finally got rid of their version of Bernie Sanders.

    I also not going to deny that there are a fringe element of bigots that worm their way into parties of the left…which is horrible. Parties of the left should offer no safe haven to the ideals and ways of hate. Those belong to the right wing where it was invented.

    The further right you get politically, the more nationalist and quasi-relgious-ethnostate you’re comfortable with. This is what makes it the perfect breeding ground for the hateful ideas that spawned the Nazi movement.

    The further left you get politically, the more egalitarian and anti-state you get. This is the breeding ground for anti-capitalism and folks whose ideals oppose power by powerful rich people and corporations – it should be hostile to people trying to exploit fears, unknowns and stereotypes.

    To the many who dedicate their activism to lifting people out of poverty, chase racism and hate from the mainstream discourse and right historical wrongs, I salute you.

    To those who would use our political and ideological movement to advance your fringe ideas of hate and division, fuck you.

    my2bits

  • Green elitism on full display

    The new federal Green Party leader lost a byelection which was called before she was selected as leader – to replace the Liberal MP who was finance minister.

    As per party constitution, the NDP promptly selected a candidate, Brian Chang, a person who campaigned under the party banner in 2019 general election and finished a respectable second place – in a deeply liberal district.

    When the Greens selected Annamie Paul as leader, loud demands were made of the NDP to quit the race and endorse Annamie. No other demand was made of any other party. Just the NDP.

    A disputable interpretation of ‘leaders courtesy’ was cited, that allowed a major party leader to run in a seat without serious opposition to give the person an easy path to Parliament to lead their party. The problematic part of their argument was that it typically applies when the party in question surrenders a seat (MP resigns) to allow for the newly crowned leader to run.

    That wasn’t the case here. The seat was decidedly liberal leaning with a slight tilt to the NDP under normal campaign circumstances.

    Leaders’ courtesy may have applied if former leader Elizabeth May quit her seat in Saanich – Gulf Islands to give Annamie Paul a fairly easy path to Parliament.

    But in the ensuing temper tantrum by May and other Green noisemakers, they undermined Annamie Paul’s ability to campaign openly and win a seat on her own steam. Further, this action effectively made Elizabeth May the leader again. But wait, there’s more.

    The Greens could claim that if Annamie Paul was elected, she would be the first black MP to lead a federal party in Parliament. But their party was trying to bully another person of colour and LGTBQ person out of their duly won NDP nomination.

    Trying to bully a candidate out of an election contest BECAUSE I WANT MY PARTY TO WIN is itself a form of voter suppression.

    The Greens, already tone-deaf on diversity issues, revealed themselves in this latest act of entitled stupidity.

    Elizabeth May have bullied the NDP at every opportunity; she and her cabal tried to force three different leadership candidates mid campaign from her party. She injected herself into the BC campaign trying to scandalize the NDP trying to campaign for seats (incumbent Greens) IN A GENERAL ELECTION.

    Elizabeth May was once seen as a model parliamentarian; she’s become anything but that. Now as an ambassador to her party and movement, she’s become radioactive to anything Green – and if rank and file Greens don’t stand up to this elitism and arrogance, they’re no better than she is – an no better than the parties they claim moral superiority to.

    my2bits