A6 NewsLeader Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Published & printed by Black Press Ltd. at 7438 Fraser Park Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5J 5B9
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—EDITORIAL—
Julian has credentials Since the death of NDP leader Jack Layton there’s been a small groundswell of support for Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian to become Layton’s successor. He’d certainly make a worthy candidate. The basic asset Julian possesses is being bilingual. (He’s trilingual if you count sign language.) Where he learned to speak French also lends him credibility. Julian spent more than a decade working for the New Democrats in Quebec. He also got a degree in international relations from the French-speaking University of Quebec. With the surge of support for the NDP in Quebec, it’s also important for the leader to know where the province is coming from when discussing its deep-rooted issues with the federal government. Julian’s roots in his own riding run deep, having grown up in New Westminster and his father teaching in Burnaby. So naturally, he understands the West, which is where the roots of the NDP developed. Since taking office in 2004, Julian has been on the NDP’s front benches as the party’s current industry critic and deputy and interim caucus chair, while in the past being the critic for six other ministries or departments. In addition, Julian has written up several private member’s bills. The one thing Julian doesn’t have that seems to be a prerequisite for political leadership is a huge ego. That is a good thing. His easy-going style with people, from struggling constituents to movers and shakers, would be welcome on the federal scene. For Burnaby and New Westminster’s sake, if he were to become leader it would give the area a cachet with the rest of the country not seen since the days of Tommy Douglas, when the NDP legend parachuted into the neighbourhood in 1962. The NDP could do a lot worse than choosing Peter Julian and will be hard pressed to find anybody better to be its next leader.
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B.C. jobs plan bumps into reality NDP leader Adrian Dix leapt on that announceVICTORIA – Premier Christy Clark’s “B.C. Jobs ment, saying it proves the BC Liberals starved the Plan” took some hits as she was finishing her regional offices. week-long publicity tour to roll it out. He’s right on that. For example, the resource The serious damage wasn’t from her political ministry’s regional director for Skeena told the opponents on the left and right. The body blows Bulkley-Nechako regional district board this came from Europe, the United States and China, spring he has 30 per cent less staff than five years where the storm clouds of a second recession ago. Some of that is a result of ending continued to gather. As world leaders duplication of forest, energy and other offered up a chorus of warning about ministries, but by this spring there debt and falling consumer demand, were 65 independent power projects commodity markets for metals, coal waiting for approval in Skeena alone. and petroleum tumbled along with Of course the NDP would fix that stocks. backlog by killing off the projects, One of the few firm targets Clark and presumably break up the natural offered was that eight new mines resources ministry again, to ramp up should be up and running in B.C. by their beloved government jobs. 2015, with expansions or upgrades to The NDP also jumped on BC Liberal nine more existing mines. That is the Tom Fletcher MLA John Les for going to high-unemtotal arrived at after detailed meetployment Nanaimo and suggesting ings with the industry. But if China’s people should look north where jobs factories slow down because fewer are going begging. Americans and Europeans buy their goods, those Construction company Ledcor had job fairs in projects can fade as quickly as the price of copper. Prince George and Chetwynd in early September, Total provincial spending for the B.C. jobs plan looking for hundreds of truck drivers, heavy comes out around $300 million. The big-ticket equipment operators, drillers, blasters, mechanitems were contributions to port and rail facilities ics, surveyors and labourers for the Willow Creek at Prince Rupert and Tsawwassen. Another $24 coal mine in Tumbler Ridge. Another job fair million goes to staff up natural resource permit was held in Fort St. James around the same time, offices, which are backlogged after amalgamation looking for equipment operators for the Mount of various ministry functions.
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Question of the week
Milligan copper-gold mine. I had a chat a couple of weeks ago with a grader operator in Dawson Creek, working in the gas patch. Most of the pickups he sees on job sites have Alberta licence plates. So let’s say you’re an able-bodied unemployed guy sitting in Nanaimo, waiting for a job to come to you. If that’s how you think the economy works, it’s no surprise if your preferred political message is Dix’s 1960s socialist blather about the government forcibly sharing the wealth. And it’s no surprise that you’re unemployed. BC Conservative leader John Cummins trashed the Prince Rupert port announcement as a payoff to local aboriginal people for a potash facility. “The usual Liberal policy of giving natives a veto on new projects has got to end,” Cummins said, demonstrating once again that he understands nothing about the evolution of this issue in the past 20 years. In summary, Clark’s jobs plan is to continue Gordon Campbell’s Pacific gateway strategy. The opposition parties are reheating decades-old failed options they hope will smell better than a stale three-term government. And B.C. is, as always, at the mercy of world events. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com tfletcher@blackpress.ca