The NDP government’s decision to finish the Site C dam appears to have energized one political party more than any other: the B.C. Green Party.
While the NDP deals with internal dissent among party activists and the B.C. Liberals are consumed by their own leadership race, the Greens are gleefully using the Site C decision as the perfect tool to raise money for the party.
Last week I received several fundraising emails from the Greens, most of them referencing Site C. The Greens have condemned the NDP over its decision, but have also made it clear the party has no intention of toppling the government come the next confidence vote in the legislature.
While the Greens will continue to prop up the NDP, their differences on the Site C dam issue gives the Greens pretty well 100 per cent of the political turf when it comes to opposing the project.
WATCH: NDP decision on Site C
And it will be interesting to see whether the Greens can exploit this single issue over the next few years, and in so doing increase their public support at the expense of one other party – the NDP.
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A check of social media, whether it be Facebook or Twitter, reveals what appears to be a serious schism within the NDP activist ranks. The environmental wing of the party in particular is enraged at the Site C decision.
While there is no evidence of any dissent within the NDP caucus or cabinet over the decision to finish the dam, it’s clear there is a lot of anger within the ranks of party members.
Will that considerable anger dissipate over time? Or will it continue to simmer and if it does, it’s fair to wonder whether that will bleed support from the NDP and send it the Greens’ way. One assumes a voter who remains furious at the government over Site C four years from now is not going to be voting for the B.C. Liberals.
As I noted here last week, Site C is not as big an issue with the general public as, say, the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. But within parts of the NDP itself, it remains a Big Deal.
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I can’t think of any other issue that so neatly divides the NDP and the Greens. They have their differences on some issues – bridge tolls, for one – and the Greens feel frustrated on the pace of implementation of other policies, such as ride hailing.
And they occasionally squabble over how the legislature is governed and the Greens like to demonstrate, from time to time, that they are very much an Opposition party and not an official part of government.
But Green Party leader Andrew Weaver has blasted the NDP in particularly vitriolic fashion over Site C and shows no sign of letting up (he has neatly tied it to the decision to scrap the Port Mann Bridge tolls, a move that loaded $4 billion in debt onto the government’s books and therefore made it almost impossible to kill the dam).
Of course, this is all a giant pillow fight. Weaver won’t use the nuclear option and push the NDP from power because, as I have noted several times before, he can’t risk fighting the next election on the current first-past-the-post electoral system.
But that doesn’t stop the Greens from using the Site C decision to continually bash the NDP and in so doing accomplish two vitally important tasks – raise money to fight the next election, and drain support from a party that may be vulnerable when it comes to retaining public support in key constituencies, such as the environmental movement.
The project will remain very much in the public eye. Two First Nations have threatened legal action, and Peace River valley landowners also are refusing to lay down and take the NDP cabinet’s decision as the final word on the matter.
And you can bet various environmental organizations aren’t about to suddenly go silent on this issue, once and forever.
The Greens may not like the Site C dam one little bit, but in a great political irony, they may be the political party that benefits the most from its continued construction.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC
Keith.Baldrey@globalnews.ca
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