We take it as a given that governments will be more interested in protecting the environment if ordinary people who care about these issues get involved in political parties – in whichever party seems best to them – to demand that the leaders of their party take appropriate action.  And that is never more true than during party leadership races: in BC a small number of people are about to select the premier and the leader of the opposition for the province, determining the environmental policies and direction of both major parties for years to come.

For this reason, West Coast Environmental Law participated in a campaign – known as the Voter Education Action – with some other members of Organizing for Change (OFC) (Dogwood Initiative, Ecojustice, Georgia Strait Alliance and Wildsight) to encourage environmentally-minded people to sign up for either of the two BC parties that are holding leadership races at the moment: the NDP or the Liberals. 

We are not endorsing any party in particular; nor are we implying that their environmental policies or track record are equal or equivalent. We are simply saying that British Columbians who think it’s important that the BC government do better on the environment would do well to join one or the other of the two parties that are holding leadership races and vote for leadership candidates who put environmental protection front and centre in their campaigns. One of the two candidates from either the Liberal or the NDP party will be BC’s next premier, and as a member of either of those parties you will have a voice in ensuring that whoever the party nominates as their candidate is the greenest of the bunch.

As the NDP’s period for signing up members to vote for a new leader had already closed, the most recent email from the Voter Education Action was focused on people who might consider joining the BC Liberals and who (due to that party’s proposed rules) are most likely to impact that party’s leadership race.  Our earlier email, sent prior to the NDP’s membership deadline, had encouraged recipients to consider joining either party.

Murray Dobbin, in an aggressively worded article about this email, feels that this more recent email is inappropriate.  He lashes out at West Coast and the four other organizations involved in the email, seeming to suggest that we are in some way attempting to take over the Liberal Party or are playing underhanded politics.  He even suggests that environmental groups should hope that the eventual leader of the Liberal Party will not take a strong position on the environment, because a good Liberal platform might compare favourably to the best that the NDP can muster:

What … if a Liberal leadership candidate comes up with a better statement on the environment than any of the NDP candidates?  And what if he or she wins the leadership?  Should so-called Conservation Voters then vote Liberal – and ignore all the other carnage this terrible Liberal government has done and would continue to do?

Unlike Mr. Dobbin, we would be delighted if a Liberal leader adopted a strong environmental platform.  We have been working equally hard to press NDP leadership candidates to do the same.  A race between the parties to see who can have the strongest environmental platform would be ideal.

Neither we, nor OFC, will be telling people who to vote for in the next provincial election (see the note about the Conservation Voters at the end of this post), but having both of the major parties have strong positions on the environment can only improve environmental protection in BC.  We will certainly be evaluating, as we have in the past, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the platforms of BC’s parties: in BC’s 2009 election our analysis showed that the environmental platforms of the NDP and the Green Party were comparable and both were well ahead of the Liberal Party’s platform on all issues. 

We agree that environment cannot be the only issue that voters consider in making their choice of who to support in the election.  Naturally, voters will have a whole host of other issues that they will want to consider when casting their ballot in a general election – including critical issues of social justice, health, education, economic policy, arts and culture, and many more.  Our job – of making sure that the environment has a voice in both the current leadership races and in the next general election – should not be taken as diminishing or ignoring those important issues. 

So that’s our position on the Voter Education Action and our reasons for participating in it.  The leadership races represent an important opportunity to raise the profile of the environment in BC politics and hopefully to select leaders – in both parties – that know that they owe their election as party leader to members that care about the environment. 

A great many people – some of whom have joined the NDP, and others who have joined the Liberals – have appreciated the information provided by the Voter Education Action and the opportunity to join the party of their choice to influence the leadership debate.  We believe that their participation will pay dividends for the environment in the future.

We appreciate that other people are more challenged by the Voter Education Action.  It is not an approach that West Coast or other OFC member groups have engaged in previously, and there will undoubtedly be an evaluation when the leadership races are over as to whether this approach was effective and/or something that we would attempt again in the future.  We welcome your comments (email me at agage@wcel.org).

By Andrew Gage

Note: Mr. Dobbin mistakenly identifies the organizations involved as members of the Conservation Voters of BC.  While we respect their work, West Coast is not and has never been a member of the Conservation Voters.  Conservation Voters of BC is not a charity and (unlike West Coast) endorses candidates and otherwise takes partisan political positions.  The confusion presumably arose from the fact that the Voter Education Action email does provide a link to information contained on the Conservation Voters site.  Conservation Voters of BC has also responded to Mr. Dobbin’s article.