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A look at the achievements and controversies that defined the BC Liberals' 16 years in power under premiers Gordon Campbell and ChristyClark.

A worker walks past stacks of lumber at the Partap Forest Products mill in Maple Ridge,B.C.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/DarrylDyck

The Liberals leave the provinces economy with among the best numbers in the country for economic performance and employment. B.C. had the highest GDP and employment growth rates last year and the lowest unemployment rate. The province finished last year with its fourth consecutive surplus and is projected to have a fifth in 2017/18. A recent fiscal update from the Liberal finance minister revealed a $2.8-billion surplus for 2016/17, due in large part to increased tax revenue from better-than-expected growth, though the New Democrats have suggested they dont believe those numbers, which had not yet beenaudited.

But that performance has not been felt everywhere in the province, with unemployment rates currently much higher in resource-dependent areas outside the Vancouver region and Vancouver Island. Incomes for the top earners in B.C. have steadily increased during the Liberals time in office, while middle- and lower-income wages have remained relativelystagnant.

The Liberals also triggered a revolt when, immediately after the 2009 election, the government announced a plan to switch to a harmonized sales tax. The announcement was condemned by critics as a post-election betrayal and sparked a populist revolt that eventually led to a referendum. The government lost the referendum, the old provincial sales tax was restored, and the affair was largely blamed for Mr. Campbells resignation as premier.

Tzinquaw dancers from the Cowichan Tribe perform during the Aboriginal Cultural Festival, a three-day outdoor event to celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal cultures in B.C. and honour the treaties of Esquimalt and Songhees Nations in Victoria in June,2014.

Chad Hipolito/For The Globe andMail

The Liberals have helped to finalize treaties and pursued business relationships with FirstNations.

Before sweeping to power in 2001, the party campaigned on the promise of holding a referendum on treaty negotiations. Indigenous groups across the province called for a boycott. The 2002 referendum, which cost $9-million, had a low turnout, with only about 35 per cent of registered voters mailing in a ballot. (A majority of those who responded backed government principles laid out in thereferendum.)

But the results didnt have much impact. And by 2005, the government had moved on to an agreement with First Nations called the NewRelationship.

That agreement, between the province and the First Nations Leadership Council, was based on three principles: respect, recognition and accommodation of aboriginal title and rights; respect for each others laws and responsibilities and the reconciliation of aboriginal and Crown titles andjurisdictions.

In the most recent update on that initiative, covering 2012-2013, the province cited progress in treaty talks, revenue-sharing and strategic agreements, including mining and forestrydeals.

During the Liberals time in office, the federal and B.C. governments have reached final agreements with the Tsawwassen First Nation (2009), the Maa-Nulth First Nations (2011) and the Tlaamin Nation(2016).

DARRYL DYCK/For The Globe andMail

The Liberals have left a legacy of controversy and unfinished business in the provinces educationsystem.

In 2002 when Ms. Clark was education minister the Liberals brought in legislation that stripped language related to class size and composition from teachers contracts and took away their right to negotiate those issues in future bargaining. The B.C. Teachers Federation challenged the legislation in court. The lawsuit went through several stages before winding up at the Supreme Court of Canada, which in a November, 2016 decision sided with the BCTF, setting the stage for hundreds of new teachers to behired.

In 2004, Mr. Campbell announced a $1.5-billion program to upgrade schools by 2020. In an April update, the province said 228 projects are completed or in progress, with another 118 schools yet to beaddressed.

At the same time, the Liberals have pointed to test scores that are among the best in the world, specifically the worldwide PISA test. In the 2015 edition of PISA, B.C. Grade 10 students ranked first among OECD countries in reading, second in science and sixth in math. In the preceding survey, for 2012, B.C. students ranked second in reading, third in science and 10th inmath.

Burrard Thermal, a natural plant in Vancouver that has sinceclosed.

DARRYL DYCK/For The Globe andMail

The tax is now firmly entrenched but critics say B.C. has faltered on the climate front with its focus on liquefied natural gas.

Ms. Clark, meanwhile, has pursued an ambitious LNG agenda and approved expansion of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline from Alberta to the Vancouver region. In 2012, Ms. Clark announced five conditions for B.C. to consider heavy oil pipelines within its borders, including improved spill response and a fair share of the economic benefits all of which Ms. Clark says Kinder Morgan hasmet.

The Liberals came under fire following the Mount Polley mine spill, which occurred in August, 2014, and sent more than 20 million cubic metres of mine waste and water into area waterways, near QuesnelLake.

In the 2013 campaign, Ms. Clark campaigned on a commitment to having three LNG facilities operating by 2020. During this years campaign, she revised that to three plants under construction by 2020. Development of the industry has largely stalled and there have so far been no new revenues comingin.

The Site C dam constructionsite.

BC Hydro

Mr. Campbell placed an early focus on shifting energy production from coal and natural gas, including shutting down the Burrard Thermal natural-gas plant near Vancouver, toward clean sources such as hydroelectricity, wind and solar. In 2007, Mr. Campbell created a plan to make the province energy self-sufficient within a decade. The plan included using independent power producers to create clean energy. But critics complained power from those producers, such as through run-of-the-river projects, was largely for export, meaning there was little benefit to B.C. to balance against the environment impact on therivers.

The greatest potential legacy of the Liberal governments push toward clean energy could yet be derailed: the $8.8-billion Site C hydroelectric project along the Peace River in northern B.C. Site C had seen fits and starts for decades until Mr. Campbell officially launched it in 2010, the beginning of the largest public infrastructure project in the provinces history. Site C has drawn fierce opponents due to its impact on First Nations and its potential to reshape the river valley, as well as doubts about whether B.C. even needs the electricity it would produce. Environmentalists who were once supporters of the project, such as Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver, have come to see it as an ecological catastrophe that cause irreversible damage with little actual benefit. The incoming NDP government plans a new review but has not yet committed to stopping the project, which employs about 2,200 people and has already cost nearly$2-billion.

Premier ChristyClark.

JONATHAN HAYWARD/THE CANADIANPRESS

The Liberals faced repeated scandals over transparency and access to information; those problems were compounded in recent years by a debate about the partys fundraising practices and its refusal to consider campaign financereform.

The provinces information and privacy commissioner complained that the Liberal government had a culture of oral government in which decisions were not documented to shield them from access-to-information requests. In 2015, the commissioner released a scathing report that concluded the government routinely thwarted access-to-information requests by triple-deleting e-mails. As part of that investigation, a government employee was charged for lying about his role in deleting records; he eventually pleadedguilty.

On the issue of campaign finance, the Liberals rejected calls to impose limits on political donations, which allowed the party to raise more than $13-million last year, largely from large corporate donors and in some cases through private cash-for-access events. Ms. Clark responded to that criticism by promising an independent panel to review the laws after the election. In recent weeks, she adopted the New Democrats pledge to ban corporate and uniondonations.

And the government faced heavy criticism, and a lawsuit, for its handling of the firing of eight health researchers, including one who later killed himself over an alleged data breach in 2012. A critical report released just before the spring election campaign concluded the government botched its investigation and the subsequent firings, and then mislead the public by suggesting, wrongly, that the RCMP wasinvestigating.

A real estate for sale sign is pictured in front of a home inVancouver.

Ben Nelms/Reuters

The Liberals responded by ending self-regulation of the real estate industry and implementing policies designed to cool prices, including a tax on foreign buyers introduced last year that appears to have significantly reduced foreign activity in the housing market; allowing Vancouver to tax vacant homes; and a loan program for first-time buyers. The New Democrats have proposed their own measures for the housing market, including a provincewide speculation tax, but the party has not committed to dismantling the Liberalpolicies.

The Liberals responded to such criticism by arguing that fostering a healthy economy and creating jobs was the best way to help people out of poverty. In 2015, the Liberals implemented a series of changes designed to improve the social safety net, doubling the income families with children can keep without it being clawed back from their income assistance benefits, ending the clawback of child-support payments from income assistance, and tying the minimum wage to inflation (though stopping short of adopting a $15-per-hour minimum wage). The Liberals final Throne Speech included a pledge to increase social assistance rates, as the New Democrats had promised todo.

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National Rifle Association members attend the 146th NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits on April 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Ga.(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)

Many progressives are decrying a recruiting video fromthe National Rifle Association they say comes dangerously close to promoting violence against liberals.

In the video, conservative commentator Dana Loesch runs down a list of alleged atrocities committed by an unspecified "they."

"They use the media, schools and celebrities to indoctrinate people with "their narrative, Loesch says.They "smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding."

The only way to stop them and save the country "is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth," she says.

The ad, which was first posted to YouTube in April, drew condemnation on Twitter Thursday:

"Its a paranoid vision of American life that encourages the NRAs fans to see liberals not as political opponents, but as monsters," wrote Zack Beauchamp for Vox.

"How many of those Republican Congressmen who were calling for a reduction in rhetoric following the ballfield shooting, will step forward to condemn this video that uses that incident to call for civil war on Americans?" asked the Daily Kos' Mark Sumner.

Sumner said the NRA is trying to boost gun sales by "convincing half of America to declare war on the other half."

Loesch defended the ad on social media, saying the ad was about denouncing recent incidents ofviolent protest.

"And some of these people that are completely hyper-overreacting, get a grip," she said. "My gosh, how much energy do you use every damn day being so over-outraged about everything?"

"The reaction to this is insane,"Loesch told Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show Thursday night. "Apparently me condemning violence is what's inciting and dividing America."

Here is the full transcript of the video:

They use their media to assassinate real news.

They use their schools to teach children that the president is another Hitler.

They use their movie stars, and singers, and comedy shows, and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again.

And then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance.

All to make them march. Make them protest. Make them scream racism and sexism and xenophobia and homophobia. To smash windows, burn cars, shut down interstates and airports, bully and terrorize the law abiding.Until the only option left is for the police to do their jobs and stop the madness.

And when that happens, theyll use it as an excuse for their outrage.

The only way we stop this. The only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.

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NRA video declares war on liberals, critics say - USA TODAY

British Columbia premier-designate John Horgan prepares to make a statement following a non-confidence vote in Victoria. Photograph: Kevin Light/Reuters

British Columbias Liberal government has been defeated in a non-confidence vote, as expected, paving the way for the left-leaning New Democrats to rule the western Canadian province for the first time in 16 years.

Such a prospect has unnerved investors in Canadas third-most populous province, not least owners of oil and gas projects, such as Kinder Morgan Incs C$7.4bn Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which the New Democratic party (NDP) has vowed to halt.

But an NDP government, which has to be propped up by the third-place Green party to achieve a slim parliamentary majority of one, is fragile, and few expect it to survive the four-year term.

On Thursday, seven weeks after a knife-edge election, NDP and Green lawmakers used their 44 votes in the 87-member legislature to pass a non-confidence amendment to the Liberal governments Throne Speech.

After the vote, NDP leader John Horgan told reporters he had met the provinces nominal head, Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon, and that she had invited him to form a new government, making him British Columbias next premier.

Well have access to government documents tomorrow to start working on a transition, Horgan said. I cant predict when that (transition) will be, but its going to be soon.

Incumbent premier Christy Clark told media she offered her resignation to Guichon, but asked for a dissolution of the legislature, which the lieutenant-governor did not grant.

Dissolution would trigger another election. While Guichon technically has that power, such a move would go against convention for the largely ceremonial leader.

Guichon said in a statement she will accept Clarks resignation.

The NDP and Greens struck an agreement last month to oust the right-leaning British Columbia Liberal party unaffiliated with the left-leaning federal Liberal party of prime minister Justin Trudeau after a 9 May election reduced Clarks party to a minority.

The NDP and Greens, which will form the provinces first minority government in 65 years, have accused the Liberals of trying to retain power after the election by stealing their election promises and introducing them as last-minute legislation to delay being voted out.

Yet those same promises could be hard to deliver under an NDP government, which needs Green cooperation and every legislator to be present for every vote to pass laws, said University of British Columbia political science professor Hamish Telford.

The NDP may decide on its own accord that it needs to have a fresh election, he said.

Continued here:
No-confidence vote for British Columbia Liberals delivers blow to pipeline project - The Guardian

By Arvin Temkar By Arvin Temkar June 30 at 8:40 AM

I have an Independence Day tradition: I like to listen to songs about America. My favorites tend to be critical of this country in some way, such as Woody Guthries This Land Is Your Land or Bruce Springsteens Born in the USA. These arent the flag-waving anthems their titles suggest; theyre searing indictments of a nation that failed its citizens by leaving them poor, stuck and feeling as Springsteen sings like a dog thats been beat too much. On our day of national pride, when celebratory words such as freedom and liberty are hurled about like Roman candles, it feels important to remain clear-eyed about our faults.

But at some point in the day, perhaps after taking in a greed-bashing punk tune or Nina Simones burning civil rights lament Mississippi Goddam, I have a secret favorite: Lee Greenwoods God Bless the USA. Its a song my fellow liberals love to hate. I love it.

Yes, it is overwrought and jingoistic. It glorifies war. It trumpets self-righteousness. Theres a reason Greenwood was invited to perform the song at the inaugurations of the last four Republican presidents, including Donald America First Trump.

Im proud to be an American, where at least I know Im free, the song famously declares. Its exactly the kind of vapid Independence Day rhetoric I cant stand. Not everything about our country is rainbows and unicorns. What about government surveillance? Institutionalized racism? Children whose futures are determined by the Zip codes where theyre born ?

And yet I still find myself moved by this song. Maybe its because I grew up surrounded by soldiers in Camp Zama, a U.S. Army base in Japan. I remember visiting home from college and seeing a soldier I knew sing the song one night at the local VFW, where my friend was a bartender. The soldiers voice, unexpectedly beautiful, gave me chills.

Or maybe its because even though my mother is from the Philippines and my father is from India, I have always identified first as American. Or maybe its simply the line, so magnificent in its crescendo: Cause there aint no doubt, I love this land.

Because despite the nations flaws, I do love this land. I am proud to be an American. And God Bless the USA, despite its flaws, beautifully captures that sentiment. The melody is an earworm, the swells are triumphant, and the emotion though a bit syrupy is authentic. I am impressed by its rawness, its conviction that we are one people and that we should be free. I admire its unabashed enthusiasm, its soft solemnity.

Im reminded of a story about another Independence Day standard: America the Beautiful. Ray Charless enduring version appears on the album A Message From the People, released in 1972, not long after the height of the civil rights movement.

Charles revised the songs lyrics, leaving out phrases such as pilgrim feet and alabaster cities ... undimmed by human tears. He later explained: Some of the verses were just too white for me, so I cut them out and sang the verses about the beauty of the country and the bravery of the soldiers. Then I put a little country church back beat on it and turned it my way.

When a black magazine criticized Charles for selling out by singing the song, he said his attitude toward America was like that of a mother chastising a child: You may be a pain in the ass, you may be bad, but child, you belong to me.

I know that feeling. It is a sense of immense love, even if that love is sometimes tinged by disappointment. When Greenwood sings in God Bless the USA that hed gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today, its easy to understand where that sentiment comes from. You fight for what you love.

I adore God Bless the USA, but, like Charles, I want to offer my own variation of the song to turn it my way. Its clearly a tribute to the armed forces, and I dont deny the honor in that. But when I listen this Independence Day, Ill also be thinking of the men and women who defended this country and its values in other ways: people like Edward R. Murrow, the broadcaster who risked his career to confront the demagogic Sen. Joe McCarthy; Harvey Milk, who helped pass gay rights legislation in San Francisco before he was assassinated; and Rosa Parks, whose courageous defiance was a spark for the civil rights movement, in which many were killed.

I think, too, of James Baldwin, who wrote in Notes of a Native Son that I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

For that, as the man says, Ill gladly stand up.

Twitter: @atemkar

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My fellow liberals hate Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA.' I love it. - Washington Post

Updated June 30, 2017 14:38:11

Liberals in Victoria claim the party's religious right is stacking branches with Mormons and Catholic groups in a drive to pre-select more conservative candidates.

It comes amid a heated debate in the New South Wales division over whether to adopt a Victorian-style "plebiscite" model to empower branch members.

Currently, candidates in NSW are chosen by a mix of branch representatives and party officials, a system critics claim is run by "factional warlords".

The Victorian model, introduced in 2008, allows party members of two years standing to vote in Lower House pre-selections in their electorates.

Sources have told the ABC the Victorian system is more open and democratic and has seen talented MPs including Josh Frydenberg, Kelly O'Dwyer and Dan Tehan win pre-selection.

Others claim it has also encouraged rampant branch-stacking.

Members of the party's executive have been accused of "actively recruiting" Mormons and conservative Catholics to branches across Victoria, which some fear could eventually lead to more conservative candidates winning pre-selection.

While the Liberals prides themselves on being a broad church, the ABC has been told the recruits are often motivated by "single issues" like same-sex marriage or euthanasia.

There are concerns this is distorting the values of the Liberal Party, which is shifting towards the right, but others argue it is part of a broad recruitment drive aimed at arresting a serious decline in membership numbers.

Victorian State Executive member Marcus Baastian said the party has been targeting business groups, young professionals and different cultural groups as well as religious organisations.

He hit back at claims the party was "swinging to the right", saying the accusation was designed to undermine efforts to modernise the state division.

"Recruitment in Victoria has delivered fantastic results in lowering our average age, increasing our party membership and ensuring we have campaigners on the ground in our marginal seats to help out candidates at election time," he told the ABC.

The battle over plebiscite pre-selections in NSW will come to a head at next month's "futures convention" where delegates will debate Tony Abbott's push to adopt a plebiscite or "one member, one vote" model.

Mr Bastiaan, who is considered a controversial figure in the party, is firmly behind Mr Abbott's push and has told the NSW division its duty was "to be relevant, forward footed and ensure it is a membership organisation that respects the very people who vote for it".

In a video to members attending a pre-convention event in Sydney tomorrow, he warned: "Without a strong New South Wales, we cannot win and hold Government."

Those pushing for change in NSW point to the Liberal's dwindling membership and narrow support base, arguing that giving people a say will revive the party.

But, for many, this is also a battle for control between a divided right faction and a dominant left.

The NSW State Council last year rejected Mr Abbott's motion to change the preselection process and voted in favour of a one put by Mr Turnbull and NSW Premier Mike Baird to debate the issue and broader party reforms at this year's futures convention.

Anyone will be able to attend and some party members have told the ABC they fear it will be ambushed by Mr Abbott's hard-right loyalists whose ultimate goal is to damage Malcolm Turnbull.

The Prime Minister supports plebiscites in principle, but the left faction to which he is aligned has been campaigning against it, fearing it could open the door to branch stacking in the state.

According to Mr Abbott, change to the NSW Liberal Party is "unstoppable" and most now concede that is the case.

"Nobody wants to leave that conference with the same system we have now"," a NSW Liberal source said.

"There has got to be change."

Topics: liberals, government-and-politics, federal---state-issues, federal-government, political-parties, community-and-society, religion-and-beliefs, australia, nsw, vic

First posted June 30, 2017 14:29:49

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Victorian Liberals claim right faction stacking branches with Mormons and Catholics - ABC Online