nic slater

Jack’s death this week was a shock to us all, especially after our May 2nd Federal election, where Jack and his team were able to lead the New Democrats to an unprecedented 2nd place finish with a more than respectable 103 seats in Ottawa. I ran in that election here, in Delta-Richmond East and we improved our standing by almost doubling our votes from the 2008 results.

Quebec of course was our biggest success, where we went from 1 seat to 59 seats and effectively made peace with Quebecer’s desire to support a separatist party. A month after the election our support was still climbing at 34% and Harper’s Conservatives were down to 37%.

The New Democratic party has been around since the 1930′s when it was called the CCF. The CCF was also involved in provincial politics here in British Columbia. In fact, the NDP is the only party in Canada that is connected at the hip federally and provincially in every Province and Territory.

How we translate our federal success in May to a provincial success in the next election is a fair question. New Democrats have not changed since the 1930′s, we are the same people we were then. We care about our neighbors, our friends and our country. The difference is in how we now communicate our moral values to the electorate. Jack Layton, as our Federal leader understood this implicitly and mentored us into understanding that challenge.

Our campaign manager for the expected BC fall election is Brian Topp, our new Federal NDP President, who writes for the Globe & Mail. Mr. Topp was also Jack’s campaign mgr. and is currently considered one of the contenders to replace Jack as leader of the Federal New Democrats.

Brian Topp also helped Jack craft his last letter to us, which he ended by saying:

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton”

Express your condolences to Jack Layton’s family here.

 

In February, she won the leadership of the BC Liberals, but she only had the support of one of her 48 MLA’s, Harry Bloy. More recently, she contradicted her MLA Blair Lekestrom when he announced a gas tax to help fund the long awaited Evergreen Skytrain. This past week, the BC Liberal Leader announced a report they commissioned, critical of BC Hydro in a year when the Corporation made record profits for us, go figure! Clearly, this attempt to discredit BC Hydro reveals the BC Liberals have a secret agenda and one can only assume that they are trying to destroy this important part of our British Columbian heritage.

Yesterday, BC Hydro CEO Dave Cobb’s private conversation with his staff was reported in the Vancouver Sun where he contradicted the BC Liberal report. Today, Rafe Mair wonders aloud, ‘What Will Clark Do Now’? With the CEO of BC Hydro opposing his masters, Rafe puts forward his ideas on this continued opposition to these destructive BC Liberal policies.

What do you think?

Imagine the Egyptians destroying the pyramids, the Pantheon being leveled in Rome, or the Taj Mahal being knocked down to build a commercial highway? Sounds absurd. These ancient burial grounds are protected because of their rich connection to ancient civilizations and the actions of individuals and organizations to protect them.

What if I told you that a similar site was actually under threat here in our own community. In order to build the controversial South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) the St. Mungo or Glennrose Cannery would have to be dug up, paved over, desecrated.

To put this in context this site is possibly one of the oldest burial sites known in North America. Archaeologists claim that artifacts have been discovered that date back 5000 years (3000 B.C.) and that the site may have been used continuously for close to 9000 years.

This week a governmental report submitted to the Ministry of Transportation has surfaced that backs up this assessment. The report was submitted in 2006 and seems to have been buried by the government in their haste to complete the project.

Also this week, one member of the Tsawwassen First Nations and a Cree nation member have filed a civil suit in the Vancouver Supreme Court against the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Minister of the Environment, and the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

Environmental concerns have also been a major factor in the construction of the SFPR as it will destroy valuable agricultural land, lead to more pollution, and infringe on wildlife habitats as well as peoples communities. Activists had been occupying the construction site until a court injunction forced them off.

Such actions by the citizens of New Westminster actually led to the shutting down of the North Fraser Perimeter Road!

Read More:

Article from the Georgia Straight 2010

The Report submitted to the Ministry of Transportation from 2006

Stop the Pave

Nic speaking out on the Federal authorities and the lack of democratic accountability with them.