Tieleman's 'Dinosaur Thinking' on Jobs vs. Nature

It was a shocking column from Bill Tieleman on The Tyee, March 4: "Going Green Browned off Key NDP Voters." Tieleman revealed himself to be an old school politico who treats us to some bad arguments -- some sound just like the "jobs first" position of climate change deniers. He recites, pretty much verbatim, the old union line about dirty industrial jobs being essential, because, you know, tourism only pays minimum wage.

Bill's restatement of the old line is this: "But if they [environmentalists] really mean rejecting oil and gas pipelines and projects, ditching the Site C dam proposal, kiboshing mining and exports, fighting fracking for natural gas, and preserving forests from logging, then the NDP is doomed to an extended stay in opposition."

So, winning government is a good enough reason to pretend climate change doesn't exist and we don't have to change the fundamentals of our energy system, Bill? I think the evidence shows that if you agree climate change is a problem then bitumen pipelines and LNG are non-starters, for two examples.

That kind of dinosaur thinking is enough to make the NDP at least irrelevant if not extinct.

Chump's game

We are in the midst of a widespread realization that capitalist growth endlessly mining nature is a chump's game. Even wild B.C. is no longer a limitless expanse of trees to be harvested forever. It's a finite planet with a finite atmosphere, and we can't go on as we have before. Things are going to change Bill, whether we like it or not. Our only choice is whether to get in there and steer this change and adapt quickly, or let it come crashing disastrously over us.

This realization is increasingly relevant to voters in B.C.

Now, Bill isn't entirely wrong about the debacle of the recent provincial election. The Liberals did win it with high-priced tactical advice on positioning and painting the NDP as job killers. Again. It's a tired old line. They refurbished it for modern anxieties though. The Liberals carefully postured a reassuring role for sketchy times. Don't rock the boat and we'll soon be back to the good old days of the '70s and '80s. The Good Old Economic days.

Except we won't folks. Sure it's easier to reassure nervous voters by saying things can stay the same. But it's a lie!

Bill makes a big error with his assumption that the only way to beat the old Socred/Liberal economic security ploy is to knuckle under to it. We need to be smarter and find brilliant new ways to move the discussion past that hoary old zombie. The job-killing lie has been used so many times, you would think the NDP would be ready for it, and have strategies in place to handle it.

Increasingly what is going to reassure more young and aware voters is policy that faces realities and doesn't play hide-our-heads-in-the-sand. We want an electoral option that puts an exciting vision before us, one where families are more secure and communities more caring. We will have to forgo big-ticket luxuries (Olympics, bridge monuments, dams). We will have to redistribute wealth, and tax the rich more. We can increase our security by localizing our economies and importing far less. We need to export less, and make it really value-added.

Some New Dem leaders get it

The heady days of windfall, oil-gusher capitalism are ending. The big trees have been cut. Now we have to work hard for a much smaller return. And that's OK, because we are ready to work hard at good jobs that are clean, healthy and build a sustainable economy. Even if we don't make as much. We can't afford the $60 to $80 an hour nature-mining jobs, but we can make darn sure everyone can have a steady $20 an hour job.

This is a far more pragmatic economic vision. Bitumen pipelines don't deliver much economically to B.C. at all, and the risks that come with them make them a bad bet, even if they weren't disastrous from a carbon-climate point of view. Natural gas exports and LNG are not much better. The international gas market may be there for a short while, but it's sure no long-term plan for economic security. Wood and sustainable forestry is actually a far better plan. Not exported raw logs, but value-added, manufactured wood -- what a green building material!

Increasingly the NDP leadership is recognizing we need to make this change. Peter Julian, the NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster says the party has to push for a massive transition to clean energy, to build that industrial capacity, or be left in the choking dust by the rest of the planet. He says it must be a centrepiece of the platform in the coming federal election. We can only hope the federal party has the guts to do it.

Real political leadership has courage, convictions and vision. People recognize it when they see it. Whining about how the Liberals bought their way to power once again with an old lie doesn't help anyone. Come on Bill, let's move on to the next stage in B.C. politics, and rise to the challenges facing us in the 21st century.