Washington Governor Jay Inslee meets with BC Premier John Horgan in Victoria (Flickr/Province of BC) By Joyce Nelson In a widely published June 3 op-ed for Postmedia newspapers, Thomas Gunton – a former B.C. Deputy Minister of Environment – decimated the Trudeau Liberals’ decision to buy Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain
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The Common Sense Canadian: Why I got arrested for blocking Kinder Morgan
Citizens preparing to get arrested outside Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby tank farm (Photo: Alex Harris) By Kyle Farquharson This year, nearly 200 people — including federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart — have been arrested on Burnaby Mountain for civil disobedience actions against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Never
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Film explores rare primeval forest and plan to save it from logging
From Common Sense Canadian publisher and award-winning documentary filmmaker Damien Gillis (Fractured Land) and Valhalla Wilderness Society comes Primeval: Enter the Incomappleux, now available online following a theatrical tour and film festival screenings. Filmed on location deep in the heart of BC’s Selkirk Mountains, this 19-minute documentary is the story of the majesty,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: China remains top renewable energy market, but US is catching up
Chinese solar company Suntech at the Bird’s Nest stadium Read this May 1 EcoWatch article on China’s continued dominance of the renewable energy market – and the recent growth of the US industry. For the third time in a row, China has placed first on a top 40 ranking of renewable energy markets around
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Constitutional expert debunks “National Interest” argument for Kinder Morgan pipeline
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr) Read this April 13 Desmog Canada article on lawyer Jack Woodward’s view that the “National Interest” – often cited as a basis for forcing through the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion pipeline – doesn’t trump Aboriginal rights enshrined
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: What is John Horgan thinking on LNG?!
John Horgan announcing a new framework for LNG (Province of BC / Flickr) In his desperate bid to keep Christy Clark’s LNG pipe dream alive, John Horgan has become completely untethered from reality. Today, he announced further tax incentives for the industry – as if the sweetheart deal the Liberals
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: There is virtually zero Asian demand for Alberta bitumen, new Kinder Morgan analysis reveals
Artist’s rendering of proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker expansion Read this essential analysis from Mitchell Anderson in The Tyee, torpedoing the argument that Alberta needs Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion in order to capitalize on pent up Asian demand for its bitumen: Canadians are often told the Trans
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: On Energy & First Nations, politicians want to have their cake and eat it too
Jonathan Ramos cartoon Canada can fight climate change and build more climate-ravaging pipelines. First Nations’ rights should be respected – just not at the expense of these pipelines, dams and other major projects they oppose. Got it? It’s hard to fathom, but these are the positions of our provincial and federal leaders.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Horgan’s right on Kinder Morgan, even if he got Site C wrong
On Kinder Morgan, John Horgan is standing up for British Columbians — as he should (BCNDP/Flickr) Dear Premier Horgan, I’m still mad at you for carrying on with Site C Dam, based on the utterly bogus reasons you offered the public. But when it comes to Kinder Morgan, I’ve got
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy’s oily legacy is the stain that can’t be cleaned, as climate plan revelation reminds us
Photo: Province of BC/Flickr CC Licence In 1988, a year before the Iron Curtain fell, I was in Budapest and after a stroll I went back to my group in the hotel and said this: “Folks, this regime is in trouble…when I was in the main square, the money changers
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why coal can’t make America great again
Donald Trump gets fired up about coal in West Virginia Among the ways Donald Trump vows to “make America great again” is reviving the US coal industry. That’s a stretch considering the plight coal faces today in the US. The combined value of the top four US coal companies fell from
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to Horgan: Get Serious about Kinder Morgan, Woodfibre LNG
John Horgan being sworn in as Premier, with Environment Minister George Heyman looking on (Photo: Flickr/Province of British Columbia) Dear Premier Horgan, My congratulations to you and your new government. I can tell you that a great many British Columbians who do not usually support your party voted for you
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: As Big Oil tanks, why is Canada so slow to adapt?
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr) The business model of Big Oil has already started to collapse. The model is premised on strong growth to fuel high prices and render economically viable the exploitation of expensive-to-develop, non-conventional fossil fuels, including the tar sands and shale
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: True Patriot Love: Why the Kinder Morgan pipeline will never be built
Photo: Damian Manda / Flickr CC License The Trans Mountain pipeline [Kinder Morgan] expansion project will never see the light of day. -Grand Chief Philip Stewart, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs If you live anywhere in Canada other than British Columbia, you’re probably convinced that the Kinder Morgan (Trans Mountain)
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: NDP-Green pact should mean good riddance to Kinder Morgan, but Liberal opposition won’t make life easy
John Horgan and Andrew Weaver seal their pact (Photo: @jjhorgan/Twitter) It will be a much postponed verdict but my initial reaction to the NDP-Green deal is positive. Whether so motivated or not, Andrew Weaver has done the right politically moral thing – contradiction in terms though that is – by
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: Rachel Notley can go to hell for threatening BC over pipeline
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley (Flickr CC Licence / Premier of Alberta) You can go to hell, Rachel Notley. Now, everyone, repeat after me. OK? Here we go. There is no risk in transporting Alberta’s bitumen through our forests, over our rivers, past our sparkling, azure lakes, through our cities, into
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: It’s got to be the NDP to replace Lyin’ Liberals…but LNG complicates matters
NDP Leader John Horgan Like a large number of people in the WestVancouver- Sea-To-Sky constituency, I am breaking the usual rules – I want the NDP to form the next government but I am passionately opposed to Woodfibre LNG which the NDP candidate supports. If I were to support her, my
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Heartwood: How Vancouver Island lost 90% of its ancient rainforest
In Part 1 of this new 3-part mini-series titled Heartwood, filmmaker Daniel Pierce explores the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island. Despite the reality that less than 10% of the prime, low-elevation old-growth remains on the island, these forests continue to be converted into second-growth tree farms. Pierce unpacks what the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Trumplandia vs. Clarklandia: How BC stands to lose on LNG, lumber and trade
Part one in a series by Kevin Logan February 17th 2017 As the faux populist facade fades and the new reality show “Trumplandia” begins to emerge from the ruins of the Democratic elite’s embrace of hedge funds and wall street masters, one thing is crystal clear: Big oil and gas
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Note to Justin: Pipelines don’t help transition to green economy
Photo: Canada2020 / Flickr When Justin Trudeau talks of oil pipeline projects as part of an energy transition, what exactly is he talking about? That we will be on the path to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels by increasing our oil dependency in the short term? And that by
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