BC Election, October 19, 2024
Election Highlights Lack of People's Empowerment
Elections for a new government are taking place in British Columbia on October 19. The NDP and the BC Conservative Party have each nominated candidates in all 93 ridings and the Green Party is running in 69. BC United, formerly known as the BC Liberal Party, which formed the official opposition in the legislature until dissolution on September 21, is not running candidates. Its leader has struck a backroom deal with the leader of the BC Conservative Party to "unite the centre right to defeat the NDP."
No
members of either one of these parties, let alone the
citizens
of BC
had a say in the matter or in the selection of the
candidates
for these
cartel parties. People are told that it is their civic
duty to
vote
even though they do not participate in working out how to
tackle
problems that they are facing.
Polls are showing that the Conservative Party, which held only eight of the 87 seats at the dissolution of the legislature, is neck and neck with the NDP following the collapse of BC United which was in power from 2001 to 2017, a period of unprecedented attacks on workers' rights and social programs. It is known that while the NDP pursued an anti-social agenda, should the Conservative Party be elected it will institute another wave of health care privatization and attacks on social programs. Conservative Party leader John Rustad has already announced that his government would repeal BC's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and other legislation passed by the NDP.
The NDP is self-servingly promoting research done by BC United to discredit the Conservatives before their marriage of convenience. The research depicts a number of Conservative candidates as supporters of conspiracy theories of the Make America Great Again (MAGA)-Donald Trump variety and voicing anti-immigrant, racist, anti-abortion opinions. NDP leader David Eby said at a campaign appearance on September 27 that Conservative Party leader Rustad and his team are "focused on bizarre internet conspiracy theories -- vaccines are a hoax, the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax, kids are being forced to eat bugs. ... Today [you see] a significant number of BC Conservative candidates advancing American election conspiracies that the January 6 riot at the Capitol Building was, in fact, a hoax, that it was actors that were made up."
The marriage of the Conservatives with BC United shows how desperate the ruling circles are to ensure the continuation of the pay-the-rich schemes in British Columbia and to smash the peoples opposition. Both parties, Conservatives and NDP, claim that the election of the other would bring disaster to BC. It shows the need for the people of BC to speak in their own name to lay the claims on society which belong to them by right.
Ending the persecution and criminalization of Wet'suwet'en land defenders by the police and courts, and the continuation of the long history of Social Credit, Liberal and NDP governments' violation of Indigenous rights is one important matter. Wet'suwet'en land defenders blocked the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline construction on their territory because the company had no permission from the hereditary chiefs. The CGL pipeline was built to feed the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat which was, according to then NDP Premier John Horgan, a great triumph for BC and Canada. In 2018 he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced with great fanfare the investment by foreign oil monopolies of $40 billion in the LNG Canada project, boasting that it was the "largest private sector investment" in Canadian history, bought with public funds in the form of tax breaks and other subsides valued at $5.35 billion, a monumental pay-the-rich scheme.
Action
in Vancouver, January 16, 2019, one of many actions
across
Canada,
denouncing RCMP raid on Wet'suwet'en defending their land
against
contruction of the CGL pipeline.
LNG Canada proudly announced "a major achievement" on September 12, that "Just weeks ago, we introduced natural gas to the facility for the first time, from the new Coastal GasLink pipeline." That major achievement could not have happened without the harassment, arrest and imprisonment of Wet'suwet'en land defenders, the destruction of their camps and their removal from their territory by the special militarized unit of the RCMP, all under the direction of the NDP Attorney-General. Yet the argument is presented to the citizens that the NDP is a "better choice" than the Conservatives. So too on every other matter of concern to the people.
Polling firm Angus Reid reports that the core issues are health care, economic growth, neighbourhood safety, and housing affordability. When they speak of issues it is not about what people's concerns are but reduced to which party will you vote for if you are concerned about A, B or C.
A Canadian
Press report from September 23 was titled
"Crime, disorder take centre stage in BC election, but
statistics tell
complex story." It gives voice to those calling for
increased
police
powers to address social problems through criminalization
and
incarceration. Media highlight
the Eby government's decision to decriminalize then
recriminalize drug
use while in 2023 2,551 people died of overdoses. But no
forum
is
provided for frontline workers, advocates and drug users
and the
community to discuss and work out solutions that can be
implemented to
save lives. Arguments over
Eby's plan to force treatment on people with severe
addiction or
mental
health issues are pro and con, never permitting
investigation
into the
causes of the opioid crisis, discussion by experts,
frontline
workers,
patients and families on how to protect the people and
how to
hold
those responsible
to account.
Citizens are once again expressing their dissatisfaction with an electoral system that brings parties to power to rule over the people. Once elected, they cannot be held to account for decisions that are harmful to the people and the environment. The people of BC have always been in the forefront of bringing solutions which give the people a say in government and they are sure to step up the fight for a new direction for the economy and for solutions to problems that favour the people and not the oligopolies in control in all sectors of the economy and life in BC.
This article was published
in
Volume 54 Numbers 8-9 - September 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS540810.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca