VICTORIA – If you’re like me, you are probably tired of reading or watching all those lists of the Top 10 news stories from the past year. Yes, yes, I know: the teachers’ labour dispute was a big story, but do we need to be told that again and again?
Instead of looking back, let’s look forward and try to figure out which stories we’re all going to be talking about so much in the coming year.
There will be unpredictable events, of course, that will garner a lot of headline coverage: major crimes, political controversies, spectacular accidents, cute animals that go missing (really), and the like.
But some big events in the political arena are predictable and are sitting right there on the horizon, just waiting to take over the water cooler conversation. I can think of several separate, distinct events or issues that will get a lot of news coverage in the coming year, and all of which have a direct impact on the lives of most British Columbians.
Get ready to read and hear a lot about these in 2015:
1. The transit plebiscite in Metro Vancouver in March.
By the time you get your mail-in plebiscite ballot, you won’t be able to look at so much as a transit bus without thinking about expensive transportation projects and how they should be paid for. That’s because you are about to be inundated with all kinds of information (from stories in newspapers, radio and television, to pamphlets and advertising) expressing support for both sides of the plebiscite question.
Those advocating the “yes” answer to whether the sales tax should be boosted a half point will be just as aggressive – and loud, and non-stop – as those pushing the “no” response to the proposed tax hike. You won’t be able to turn on a television newscast, radio or open a newspaper without running smack into people like Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore (an ardent Yes advocate) and Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, making their pitches, over and over again.
2. The federal election in October.
The federal vote may not be until the fall, but the campaign is now starting in earnest. The Conservatives have begun running new ads featuring Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and will continue to run ads that
attack and mock federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (and the federal government will continue to air ads praising its economic policies, with taxpayers footing the bill for them for much of the year).
All parties are well into their riding nomination processes, and candidates should start filling those positions in increasingly large numbers in the weeks ahead. The three main party leaders will step up their travel schedules – look for all three to make more and more swings through B.C., which has six extra seats up for grabs this time around – as their pace will become frenetic.
The latest polls suggest Harper and the Conservatives are hanging onto their base, while the Liberals have made an impressive recovery with the voters, and the NDP has slipped back into its traditional territory of the distant third-place.
But polls can be wrong, of course (hello the 2013 B.C. provincial election). Still, don’t count Harper out: his base, being older, is more likely to actually vote than those of his chief opponents.
3. Pipeline protests.
You didn’t seriously think these were over because the one on Burnaby Mountain ended? Come on, we’re just getting started here folks.
A great divide is beginning to take hold in this country, and it’s going to play out in B.C. like nowhere else in the country. That divide is over energy policies, as a vocal minority wants to end all oil shipments from Alberta’s vast oil sands project.
4. The Site C dam construction.
B.C. Hydro says it is aiming to begin construction in July. But that seems optimistic at best, given how many legal challenges against the dam have been filed, with more on the way.
All four of these issues are linked by the fact that all of them contain some element of political protesting, which is fitting, given that protesting is almost a British Columbian’s birthright.
And you’re going to see a lot of it this year, whether it’s targeted at a transit tax hike, an oil pipeline or a federal political party, or a hydroelectric dam.
Welcome to 2015!
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