For nearly 30 years now, the Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA), an alliance of faith, non-profit, educational institutions and union groups situated across the Lower Mainland, has played a pivotal and continuing role in ensuring that those whom government and our society has let down and made vulnerable have a loud and clarion voice in helping set policy to redress the societal wrongs that inhibit their full participation in the life of the society.
In the 1990s, the group who would come to form the Metro Vancouver Alliance almost two decades later were comprised of various members of the faith and union communities across the metro Vancouver region, who came together, informally, to fight for change and social justice.
As you’ll hear tomorrow in an interview VanRamblings conducted with recent, and now retired, Metro Vancouver Alliance organizer, Deborah Littman, in point of fact, the genesis of what would become the Metro Vancouver Alliance did not begin to occur in earnest until 2009, with work continuing on through 2013, when as you’ll hear tomorrow from former Vancouver and District Labour Council President, and former Metro Vancouver Alliance chair, Joey Hartman, 1000 people of varied backgrounds and interests came together at the Maritime Labour Centre, to create what is now the thriving activist organization, the Metro Vancouver Alliance.
Although the Metro Vancouver Alliance has been around in some form or another dating back 1993, since 2013 in its most recent and current incarnation, the MVA has worked assiduously and with conscience to …
Develop innovative solutions to social isolation, to break down the pervasive sense of anomie that has so many in its grip, particularly in the time of our current COVID-19 pandemic;
Successfully worked with British Columbia’s current provincial government to establish free transit for children ages 5 through 12, in fact all children under the age of thirteen — an initiative enunciated by Premier John Horgan in the recent provincial election;
Successfully fought with the organizers within the Living Wage for Families offices to establish living wage policies in municipalities across not just the Metro Vancouver region, but across the entire province;
Committed to working with MVA member organizations and community groups to address the social and affordable housing crisis, to strengthen existing by-laws that protect the rights of tenants, and worked with municipal governments, and the province, to establish covenants that would mandate that landlords could not increase rents beyond the established provincial rate when tenants vacate an apartment, condominium, house or other housing type.
In recent days, Patrick Condon, the founding chair of the UBC urban design programme, and Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick have made contact with the Metro Vancouver Alliance to encourage the organization to work with them to establish a Tiny Homes pilot project, to be established at member locations of ten faith-based churches, synagogues and temples.
In order to continue the invaluable work of the Metro Vancouver Alliance, and in order that the MVA might hire a full-time organizer, the MVA is currently engaged in a fundraising campaign they’re calling Bridging the Gap, a fundraising initiative that it is hoped will raise $15,000 from a broad cross-section of community members of conscience who live across our region who are committed to social justice, monies that would match the $15,000 raised in 45 minutes at a Thursday, October 15th MVA meeting.
In the time of COVID-19, the Bridging the Gap Fundraiser will occur as a warmly engaging online participant Zoom meeting. You may consider today’s VanRamblings column your special invitation to participate in the Bridging the Gap Metro Vancouver Alliance Fundraiser, scheduled for 5pm tomorrow evening, on Wednesday, November 25th, 2020.
Bridging the Gap Metro Vancouver Alliance Fundraiser
5pm, Wednesday, November 25, 2020 Register: click onthis link to RSVP
In order to participate in tomorrow night’s fundraiser, click on this link to RSVP for tomorrow evening’s fundraising meeting. Once registered, the good folks at the Metro Vancouver Alliance will post a Zoom participant link to your e-mail address. The fundraiser will be online from 4:30pm, with the official fundraiser getting underway at 5pm, the whole event to wrap at 5:45pm, perhaps the best, most selfless and most rewarding activity in which you might engage throughout the entire upcoming holiday season.
The Metro Vancouver Alliance has established a charitable Canada Helps account. Whether you want to make a one time donation to the MVA, or become a sustaining monthly donor, all you have to do is click on this Canada Helps link, click the down arrow on the right-hand side of the page, choose the Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA) option, and then click on the CONTINUE WITH DONATION “button”.
Click on the graphic above to go to the Canada Helps website, to donate to the Metro Vancouver Alliance’s Bridging the Gap Fundraiser. You’ll be glad you did! Don’t forget to click on the down arrow to choose the Metro Vancouver Alliance option.
Whether you give just once, or wish to become a sustaining MVA donor, your contribution to the Metro Vancouver Alliance will succeed in making a proportional difference of meaning in the lives of a great many people who need our help. As the MVA is designated as a non-profit, charitable organization, any donation you make will be tax deductible — all the more reason to give generously and from your heart. MVA members thank you.
The members of the Metro Vancouver Alliance look forward to meeting you online at 5pm tomorrow evening. We’ll see you then !!!
In two days, the eight-seven new, and in most cases returning, members of the British Columbia legislature will be sworn into office for the next term.
The newly-elected British Columbia New Democratic Party caucus is comprised of a record 29 distaff members, which means that more than half of the NDP’s 57 member caucus are women — good on the BC NDP, and a hearty congratulations to all new female members of the NDP caucus.
John Horgan has made various announcements leading up to Wednesday …
Cabinet, part 1. The new Cabinet, as was the case with the NDP’s most recent Cabinet, will be comprised of 50% women and 50% men — for which we have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his trusted advisors, Gerald Butts and his continuing Chief of Staff, Katie Telford to thank.
Cabinet, part 2. The new BC NDP Cabinet will be sworn in on Thursday. Here’s what we know for sure as of this writing. Contrary to VanRamblings speculation last month that David Eby would become the new Minister of Housing — well, that’s off the table, given that Premier Horgan let it slip that Selina Robinson will maintain her dual role as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister Responsible for Housing. Now, we know for sure that David Eby will not continue as Attorney General and Minister of Justice, given that Mr. Horgan let it slip that newly-elected NDP MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head would take on that role. Where does that leave the NDP caucus’ beloved David Eby? We’ll know on Thursday.
Meanwhile, though, this morning, the hapless B.C. Liberal party will be leaderless, given that Andrew Wilkinson stepped down from that role over the weekend. Update: Shirley Bond was selected as the Interim leader of the B.C. Liberals in a vote of the 28 Liberal caucus, early afternoon Monday.
Let’s use successful example of 2015 Tories post-Harper, who successfully appointed #RonaAmbrose as interim leader.
1. Leader must be a woman 2. Must command respect of the caucus 3. Clear experience in Legislature 4. Likable, media savvy & resilient
As for the Greens, the party didn’t achieve their much-desired first seat on the Lower Mainland, with the Green candidate for West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky going down to defeat to incumbent B.C. Liberal, Jordan Sturdy, in a close race, confirmed in a recount. Still, there’s good news for B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, and her Green Party colleague, Adam Olsen — John Horgan has agreed to afford the Green Party official party status in the B.C. Legislature, which means millions of dollars in funding to the party.
How Elections Are Won | Some Reasons for NDP Success
Nominated candidates in all 87 electoral districts.
Created more than 2,000 online ads (in 9 languages).
Earned more than 47,000,000 views on their digital ads.
Sent more than 300,000 text messages to British Columbians.
Trained 750 volunteers to call people all over B.C. and got out the vote during 2,479 volunteer-driven shifts!
Distributed more than 10,000 lawn signs.
Printed more than 150,000 leaflets.
Ran 5 television ads non-stop for a month.
A great deal of work goes into mounting a successful political campaign.
Now onto the stuff you really care about: the $1,000 for couples, and the $500 for individuals that Mr. Horgan had promised during the recent election campaign. Good news? The money is on its way. When the Legislature is called back into session on December 7th, the first order of business will be to enable the government to shovel that money out the door. In the spring, the BC NDP government gave most British Columbians $180 in a non-taxable Climate Action grant to households with a combined of under $125,000, money that was either deposited directly into your bank account, or mailed to you. The expectation is that monies will be deposited into your bank account on Christmas Eve (and, no, we’re not kidding), or will arrive by January 5th by snail mail — happy, happy days!
In today’s wrap-up coverage of Decision 2020, in the main, we’re going to turn the column over to the reflections of others who’ve weighed in on the recently-completed, but not yet over, British Columbia provincial election.
That said, before we move to the observations of others, VanRamblings would like to weigh-in on what we consider to be the historic re-alignment of politics in British Columbia, and what that means for us going forward.
John Horgan assumes the leadership of the B.C. NDP on Thursday, May 1st, 2014
Since being acclaimed the leader of the B.C. NDP on May 1st 2014 — replacing Adrian Dix, who had failed miserably in the 2013 provincial election — John Horgan has taken the British Columbia New Democratic Party to the centre of the political spectrum, assuming the ground occupied by the B.C. Liberals as a resource extraction, pro-LNG, Site C dam loving, moving at a snail’s pace on promised social programmes like $10-a-day child care, and as a balanced budget loving provincial political party.
In other words, the B.C. NDP have become what the B.C. Liberals should have become following the defeat of the Christy Clark government in 2017 — as Wilkinson moved the party to the right, as a coalition of right-of-centre federal Liberals, and far right-of-centre Stephen Harper Conservatives, all the while failing to take the pulse of British Columbians, who in 2020 are no longer enamoured of the anti-union, corporate-backed politics British Columbians largely supported over the past 70 years, from the era of Wacky Bennett, to “Son of Bennett,” former Mayor and Premier Gordon Campbell — who on election tore up dozens of negotiated collective agreements — and vapid talk show host made good, Christy Clark.
With the BC NDP now occupying the centre of the political spectrum, and the B.C. Liberal Party set to transform into a Brad Wall-Scott Moe Sask-Party-style right-of-centre B.C. Party, as we wrote yesterday, the left side of the political spectrum in British Columbia has been ceded to Sonia Furstenau and Adam Olsen’s re-imagined eco-socialist B.C. Green Party.
VanRamblings is predicting that Premier John Horgan will step down in late 2023, with the leadership of the B.C. NDP going to his preferred successor, David Eby, or to the charismatic member for the Stikine riding, Nathan Cullen. With either leader, the B.C. New Democratic Party will be returned to government in 2024, for a third term of office in the province’s capital.
All governments have a shelf life, though — and that will be the case with the B.C. NDP when the 2028 provincial election is called.
By that time, B.C. Green leader Sonia Furstenau will have had ample time to define her party in the eyes of British Columbians.
Upon completion of the 2024 provincial election, VanRamblings predicts that the B.C. Greens will have picked up another half dozen seats in the Legislature, and in 2028 will have added more, for a total seat count that includes all of the following ridings: Victoria-Beacon Hill, Oak Bay-Gordon Head, Saanich and the North Islands, Saanich-South, Esquimalt-Metchosin, Parksville-Qualicum, Nanaimo, Nanaimo-North Cowichan, Cowichan, Courtenay-Comox, North Island, Powell River-Sunshine Coast, Vancouver-False Creek, West Vancouver – Sea to Sky, New Westminster, Nelson-Creston, and Kootenay West, with the B.C. Greens holding the balance of power in a coalition-style British Columbia minority NDP government.
In the eventuality outlined directly above, by 2028, now a well-seasoned politico, B.C. Green leader Sonia Furstenau will hold the whip hand, in support of minority NDP government — given there’s no way a B.C. Green Party could support a right-of-centre B.C. Party, although she could hold the potential for that possibility over the heads of the B.C. New Democrats.
Now onto the observations of others, including the political strategists who comprise the endearing and engagingly foul-mouthed, beloved by many (including me), and well-experienced political difference makers — the rumpled David Herle, the good looking Scott Reid, and the swears-like-a-drunken sailor, Jenni Byrne — who over the course of the past 40 years have helped shape Canadian politics, mostly at the federal level, but often enough, too, at the provincial level: the wily, riotously humourous, utterly non-rancorous, incredibly bright, truth-telling, and — believe it or not — non-partisan panel who comprise The Herle Burly podcast, a must-listen for anybody who has a life, cares even a whit about the state of our nation, and gives a good galldarn about how the sausage is made, and how decisions are arrived at in government that determine how our lives are lived in this country we call Canada — surely, that must be you.
David Herle, Scott Reid & Jenni Byrne on British Columbia’s Decision 2020 provincial election — guaranteed to be the best thing you’ll hear all day.
Let’s excerpt a number of comments made by political pundits published on The Tyee post-election, in a story titled, So, What Does BC’s Election Outcome Really Mean? Here a few of the more provocative insights …
UBC Political Science prof, Max Cameron
Several conditions contributed to the success of John Horgan’s NDP. First, the world is going through a social democratic moment. Social democracies in other places have managed the COVID-19 pandemic effectively, in part because they have invested in universal health care and economic security …
Second, the NDP government has shown that it pays to listen to science and make policies informed by evidence. Elected officials — notably Adrian Dix — worked closely with public health officers — especially Dr. Bonnie Henry — to win the trust of the public and mobilize support for public health directives …
Third, the NDP benefited from a minority Parliament. Minority situations encourage governments to be cautious, responsive and to hew closely to public opinion. Working within a historic Confidence and Supply Agreement with the BC Greens, the NDP ran a government that made few errors and suffered few scandals.
Finally, new campaign finance rules introduced by the NDP eliminated corporate and union donations and capped contributions from individuals. This levelled the playing field.
Karen Ward: With your majority, NDP, ‘choose to be brave.’
British Columbians rejected the vicious politics of Wilkinson’s Liberals. They don’t like it when you use people in trouble as a weapon to punish them further. I hope the message to the NDP is clear: Be brave.
Alex Shiff, former BC Liberal spokesperson
While the BC Liberals needed to win back suburban Metro Vancouver swing ridings that they lost in 2017, the BC NDP was able to defend those ridings while pushing deeper into the Fraser Valley. The BC NDP was able to scoop up voters who decided that John Horgan’s first term as premier was not the radical activist administration that some had predicted, and a change in government in the middle of a pandemic was ultimately not what the doctor ordered.
The results represent an inflection point for the BC Liberals. The party needs to find a way to regain their appeal to suburban and urban ridings in Metro Vancouver, who, along with the party’s dominance in rural communities, were key to a pathway to the premier’s office.
Mario Canseco, Research Co, B.C. polling firm
The BC Liberals have a monumental dual task ahead: a need to reconnect with federal Liberal Party voters who did not feel uncomfortable voting for the BC NDP in this election, and ensuring that voters do not see the BC Conservatives as a more palatable option in 2024 or during any byelections that happen before then.
It was going to be a daunting task for any opposition party to erase the emotional edge that the handling of COVID-19 had bestowed upon the BC NDP. This is the first provincial election in this century where the incumbent premier had an approval rating higher than 60 per cent heading into election day. The BC Liberals certainly faced difficulties adapting to a campaign that minimized their natural strengths: the ability to fill rooms of supporters who wanted to hear the leader speak and an effective get-out-the-vote operation when more than half a million voters requested packages to vote by mail.
George Abbott, former BC Liberal MLA and Cabinet Minister
The Liberal campaign struck me as largely tone deaf around the issue that dominates public concern: the pandemic. If a BC Liberal government was prepared to offer up $10 - 11 billion in stimulus spending (a short-term elimination/reduction of provincial sales tax), a more imaginative platform might have embraced, for example, a billion dollar program for climate-proofing communities from wildfire and flood. The best stimulus programs deliver a “triple word score:” create or protect jobs, generate spin-off economic activity and enhance community safety and services.
As we bring VanRamblings’ post-mortem coverage of Decision 2020 to a close, we’ll leave you with this thought, that will likely gladden the heart of Sharon Gregson, as well as the working moms who’ve had to remain at home during the pandemic to care for their children: the biggest mistake made by the NDP in this election was in not identifying child care as both an economic and a feminist issue, and promising dramatically increased funding and near immediate movement towards $10-a-day and greatly expanded child care, allowing mothers to return to work while building the economy — which is a critical concern going forward — while showing a greater degree of caring and compassion for the children of the province.
While John Horgan promised free transit for children 5 – 12 years of age, that initiative failed to meet the needs of working families with teenage children who, as is the case in Surrey, must walk 5.8 kilometres, as the crow flies, to their school before becoming eligible for busing. At the very least, the John Horgan government could have promised to halve the fare for children aged 12 – 18 — a necessary initiative they failed to implement.
C’mon back Monday & Tuesday for VanRamblings’ take on the November 3rd U.S. Presidential election, where Democrats hope to win the Presidency, and both houses of Congress — and return sanity to all of our lives.
Growing up on Vancouver’s eastside, as a child living in poverty, with a tough-as-nails mother who was the family’s main breadwinner — even if she was earning only 35¢ an hour — resident in a neighbourhood in the post-World War II period, when immigrants — who we called DP’s, which unkindly stood for Deported Persons, what the uneducated, lower and working class folks in the neighbourhood used as a pejorative to describe “outsiders” — for me attending school at Lord Nelson, and later Templeton Secondary, my classmates were mainly rough-and-tumble members of the Chinese community — because, let’s face it, Grandview Woodland is not too much east of Vancouver’s Chinatown — Indo-Canadian, Filipino, black, Asian and other persons of colour, as well as recent Italian emigrés, meant that this polygot assortment of multiple cultures and ethnicities were my friends, my best friends, with whom I played rugby and brutal football games in the rain during our three-times a week “Games” block, means that for most of my life, as we discovered during the recent mid-election debate of political party leaders that, as is the case with Premier John Horgan, VanRamblings “didn’t see colour” — we just took it for granted that this is the world we lived in, and didn’t see or acknowledge any differences.
BC NDP leader John Horgan apologizes for answer to question about white privilege
Now, this is 2020, and saying that you don’t see colour is verboten, is tantamount to saying that you have had no reason to reflect on the lived experience of minority members of the community you have been elected to serve, that as non-racist as you may be, you are not anti-racist.
In the 21st century we are witnessing necessary generational change in B.C. political leadership, that during the course of Decision 2020 was best personified by B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, who spoke with clarity and with heart. Here is how, in an uncompromising manner, Ms. Furstenau answered the question, “How have you personally reckoned with your own privilege and unconscious bias as a white political leader?”
Of the three British Columbia political leaders on the debate stage that chilly, overcast Tuesday, October 13th evening, only Sonia Furstenau answered the question authentically and well, with compassion and grit.
There’s a rationale for VanRamblings opening today’s column as we did, as our way of saying that VanRamblings understands Premier Horgan on a visceral, lived experience level, and recognizes that — as is the case with us — underneath that veneer of sophistication lies the heart of a street fighter, one of whose goals in the recently-completed election was to vanquish his foes, and destroy his enemies, who represent a threat to all that he has achieved, and the quiet, deserving enjoyment of his life.
Make no mistake, for Premier John Horgan in the year 2020, B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau represented an evil force incarnate, who would seek to take from him everything he has gained in the first 61 years of his life. With down and dirty street fighter Geoff Meggs in place as John Horgan’s chief of staff, the British Columbia New Democratic Party was prepared to do whatever it took to wipe those damnable Greens off the British Columbia political stage, to consign them to the dustbin of history.
For Premier Horgan, that his campaign to eliminate Sonia Furstenau from the B.C. political stage failed, and failed miserably, caused him on election night to be something he had not been since calling an election on Monday, September 21st: generous, to Ms. Furstenau and to the Greens, in a way that he’d not shown at any time since he called his snap election, nor during the unusually becalming 32-day election period that followed.
One can understand why Sonia Furstenau, on election night, was full of anger and disapprobation for the re-elected Premier: John Horgan, who she had liked and trusted, and had worked with collaboratively and well during the three year Confidence and Supply period of coalition government, dating back to 2017 — had set about to destroy her, had visited her Cowichan riding many times — with the province’s beloved Adrian Dix, as well as federal NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, in tow — and made promises to the voters in Cowichan that were designed to wipe her off the political map.
As Ms. Furstenau states at the end of her address to the press and to the people of British Columbia, late on that chill October 24, 2020 election night, “We know you’re looking for us to put this election behind us and getting to work on the issues that matter. And we will not let you down.”
So, where to now for the gentle Ms. Furstenau, and her B.C. Green Party?
A provincial election called only one week after she’d won the contest for the B.C. Green Party leadership, caught Ms. Furstenau off guard and scrambling to put an effective election campaign in place, identify and nominate candidates across the province for her B.C. Green Party, set out a campaign itinerary, and develop an all important party platform — all of which she accomplished with steely determination, and uncommon élan.
Before we continue, a necessary bit of history on the evolution of the Green Party movement across the globe. In Europe, the Green movement arose out of the work of the far left Baader-Meinhof gang of the 1970s, who gave up violent direct action — industrial sabotage, blowing up buildings and infrastructure, and other forms of political violence — in favour of creating a Green movement that would enter government & fight against restrictions on immigration, advocating for women’s reproductive rights, supporting the legalization of marijuana, fighting for LGBTQ rights, having the state draft “anti-authoritarian” concepts of education and child-rearing, fighting against the dual threats of air pollution in the cities and the acid rain then destroying forests across Europe, fighting for civil rights, fighting against military incursions into developing states, and against state-sanctioned imperialism — well, you get the idea. The European Green movement is a progressive, far left-of-centre, multi-faceted civil rights and eco-socialist environmental movement — was in the 1980s, and remains so to this day.
The Green parties of Europe have held the balance of power, and more often than not sat in government for near 40 years, realizing substantive change as an activist movement well able to articulate the conditions necessary to create a fair and just state to serve the interests of all.
Not so in Canada. The Green movement at the federal level was founded by Jim Harris, formerly a far right member of the Conservative party, who was found to be so extremist that he was kicked out of the party, only to emerge as leader of the Green Party of Canada. In and across Canada, the Green Party has drawn candidates and support from two groups: the well-intentioned but politically naïve (with a surfeit of young, apolitical members), and those who are disenchanted with the old line parties (or parties that have an infrastructure, a broad and all encompassing raison d’être, and are committed to Canada as a diverse, inclusive nation).
For much of their life in Canada, the Green Party has lived up to and reinforced its billing as is often said about them, “Conservatives who ride bicycles.” And such was the case with former B.C. Green Party leader, Andrew Weaver, who was more than happy to join with then Premier Christy Clark in 2017 to have his Green Party form a coalition with the B.C. Liberals. Fortunate for all of us, Sonia Furstenau was having none of it, stating to Mr. Weaver that if he attempted to do so, she would cross the floor and join the NDP caucus. Adam Olsen, the then newly-elected MLA for Saanich North and the Islands told Mr. Weaver that he would sit as an Independent, should Mr. Weaver follow through on his intentions.
Thus we have the root of now former B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver’s “dissatisfaction” with his re-elected Green Party colleagues,
But that was yesterday, and today is a whole new day, an opportunity for Sonia Furstenau to establish the British Columbia Green Party as a social democratic climate justice political party committed to the Green New Deal.
“To provide all people of British Columbia with high-quality health care; affordable, safe, and adequate housing; economic security; and access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and nature.”
Which is to say, challenge the B.C. New Democratic Party on its left flank, while inspiring a new generation of voters, along with all other British Columbians who are committed to climate justice, and a fairer, more welcoming, inclusive and socially just British Columbia that meets the core needs of all of our citizens, from the bustling cities to B.C.’s suburban and vast rural communities, in every part of our province where opportunity and a safe, just, and sustainable future are what people are clamouring for.
Sonia Furstenau and Adam Olsen, and perhaps their West Vancouver-Sea to Sky Green colleague Jeremy Valeriote, have four years to re-invent the Green movement in Canada, to position the party as a viable and electable political force right across the province, to next time out, in 2024, steal a few seats from both the NDP and the B.C. Liberals, and grow the party.
After the writ was dropped and during the campaign, Premier John Horgan stated that he would not recognize the B.C. Green Party as deserving of party status, with all the financial and research supports that are available to a recognized political party, in the British Columbia Legislature. Should Premier Horgan fulfill his election commitment that four seats would be required to afford the B.C. Green Party status in the people’s house, Ms. Furstenau’s work to establish the B.C. Green Party as a truly viable political force across the province will be made that much more challenging.
Still, regardless of the decision Premier Horgan takes, Sonia Furstenau knows what she must do to gain seats in the house when the next provincial election is called four years from now: establish active constituency associations in all 87 ridings across the province, bring credible and electable candidates like Canadian marine biologist Alexandra Morton and energy and climate policy activist and academician Dr. Devyani Singh into the fold, to ensure that in 2024, the B.C. Green Party will field a slate of undeniable candidates who will win their ridings, and join Ms. Furstenau and Mr. Olsen with seats in the British Columbia Legislature.
Rarely has there been a more exciting time in B.C. politics — the closest we can recall is Dave Barrett’s activist government of the early 70s — when change and hope for a better, and a more sustainable future are not just the political agenda, but on the agenda of all progressive citizens.
As B.C.’s young climate justice activists, so inspired by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, go to the polls in ever increasing numbers in the years to come — as young people across the U.S. are doing now, in greater numbers and with greater force than at any time since the 1960s — hope for better is on the agenda, a hope that is best realized through broad support for the only political party in our province committed to a sustainable future that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs …
to maintain and improve human capital in society through increased investments in our health and education systems, with access to services, nutrition, knowledge and skills;
to preserve social capital by investing and creating services that constitute the framework of our society, focusing on maintaining and improving social equality with concepts such as cohesion, reciprocity and honesty, and the importance of collaborative relationships amongst people, encouraged and supported by laws, information and shared ideas of equality and rights, and recognizing that the economy and society and the ecological system are mutually dependent;
to maintain high and stable levels of economic growth as a key objective of sustainable development, and recognizing that abandoning economic growth is not an option, but that sustainable development is more than just economic growth, that the quality of growth matters as well as the quantity; and to improve human welfare through the protection of natural capital (e.g. land, air, water, minerals etc.), with initiatives and programmes that are defined as environmentally sustainable when they ensure that the needs of British Columbia’s citizens are met without the risk of compromising the needs of future generations.
By identifying and implementing the principles of the four pillars of sustainability through, as elucidated above, strategically sustainable initiatives, British Columbians might come to realize both a vibrant economic and an environmentally sustainable future for all of our citizens, in every town, city and village across every region of our natural province.
