Stop, go, yes, no!
NDP Cabinet Minister Murray Rankin wants to be on both sides of a vital issue. He congratulates University of Victoria students for partial success after an eight-year campaign asking the university to adopt responsible investment policies that exclude fossil fuels.
Rankin sits at the Cabinet table of a government that supports fracking, refuses to accurately determine fugitive methane emissions from gas fields, and is making massive investments for the benefit fossil fuel producers, even as CNN reports:
The last six years are now the hottest six on record, with 2020 on par with 2016 as the hottest year ever recorded.
2020 was tied for the hottest year ever recorded
Murray Rankin must recognize inconsistency of the tweet directed to UVic students, while his government maximizes efforts to facilitate investments in fossil fuels. BC NDP tolerates vast amounts of public pension funds being invested with fossil fuel producers. Additionally, the BC Government has allowed natural gas companies to benefit from more than $10 billion in royalty reduction programs, and government ended competitive bidding for rights to exploit BC’s fossil fuels. Those tenders used to bring in more than a $1 billion a year.
The Christian Science Monitor:
In behaving hypocritically, each political “tribe” can argue it is serving a greater good: the furthering of its political goals.
Categories: Energy
in-sights.ca 
Congratulating university students looks good to them, their parents, others at the university and with a little luck not many others will notice. Then he can sit at the cabinet table and do what is politically expident.
Fracking is not a good thing. We ought not to have any of it going on in our country, but then, if politicians were to come out against it, some of their contributions would dry up and cause others to not vote for them.
The number one priority of all politicians is to stay in office/power. He’s doing a fine job of that.
LikeLike
Hypocrisy in politics. Hmmm. Kind of like the sleazy power grabbing Hypocrite Horgan during a pandemic. The hypocrite in his photo op being against Site C when in opposition. Could be like former Minister of Hypocrisy Mungal when she was just an MP in opposition and against Site C, even having a photo op with the wonderful folks of Paddle for the Peace, then turning on a dirty dime with liar Horgan once elected. Trudeau might even try a power grab soon. They are more than just hypocrites. I think they are much worse, but I will hold those words back.
Also who in gods name would respect a Prime Minister that once said He admired the Dictatorship of China. Gave away our PPE to them, and then tried to deal with them in a doomed Can Sino Vaccine deal instead of supporting our own Canadian companies too have shots in many many more arms right now. Now the dirty bum has put us in further danger. Then in typical fashion comes out with his filthy propaganda and talking points about how they are looking out for Canadians. That’s stuff is much worse than general hypocrisy. So many bad politicians that are liars and backstabbers and sucking on the system like parasites. It is criminal.
LikeLike
It is today’s politic, make friends with people who are definitely not our friends and to hell with Canadians.
I do not think one senior politician actually cares about Canadians, they just do not want to run for election with a backdrop of stacked corpses.
Politics is now become organized crime, without the middlemen.
LikeLike
You got that right. They just need to be held to account by even more Canadians. Even more so these days. Remind the dirty rats who they work for.
LikeLike
Integrity is long gone in Canadian politics, there is none, as Trudeau the Younger has so well shown.
The last premier to resign over an integrity issue was Harcourt, with the Bingogate scandal.
Two thing politicians must do to get elected is to lie well and be seen to be Green. Convince the public by lying often enough that the voter believes you and being Green means you are saving the planet. Once elected, do as you damn well please and let your high priced communications and PR staff do the rest.
As for SNC Lavalin they run the province, including the NDP.
Sorry Mr. Rankin my past associations with university types leaves me cold because they lie with impunity because no one dares to cross them. Lysenskoism and revisionism is rampant at UBC and SFU, as BC besoms more and more a clone of a dystopian 1984.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” George Orwell – 1984.
LikeLike
Don’t know how to reintroduce integrity and shame into politics. Since Trump, both have left and none of our ‘representatives’ give a damn anymore.
It’s like their just taking turns steering the bus towards the cliff and pocketing the fares while they’re driving. I feel that they know we are doomed and will just jump off when #%it hits the fan.
One thing we could all do now is boycott Shaw until they remove Christy Clark from their board.
Hate seeing wrongdoers rewarded for their crimes
LikeLiked by 1 person
A short review of the distinguished Mr. Rankin. During the Parliamentary Ethics Committee investigation of the PM (aka Mr Dress Up ) and the SNCL attempt to procure a DPA for their world bribery in such places as Libya; MP Rankin was very concerned the PM office was taking direction from SNC. Much hand wringing and mild outrage at the PM and his Butt staff.
Fast forward to the $150,000,000. no bid payment to SNC for the Site C studies paid by Hydro, a crown corporation reporting to only cabinet and not the citizens of BC. Yes MLA Rankin is a hypocrite. Should we be surprised ?
LikeLike
Rankin’s greenish reputation has baffled me for almost 30 years.
For those with long memories, the guy has form, as they say on the Brit cop shows:
(1) His 1992 report to Mike Harcourt on what to do about Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project was a model of timid incrementalism. Petrified of getting the Province sued, he recommended that the BCUC do an unthreatening inquiry into terms and conditions, and not address the more central question of whether the project should go ahead at all. (Can’t damage investor confidence etc.) Subsequently, all that this inquiry did was to buy a couple of years of delay during which NGOs, FNs, and allies like Rafe Mair could do the heavy lifting of shifting public opinion decisively against Alcan. At that point, even Gordon Campbell came out against KCP, and it was then safe for Harcourt to join the parade.
(2) During the unrolling of the NDP’s late-90s fiasco on the Six Mile Ranch ALR exclusion – in which then-Ag Minister Corky Evans played the anguished but compliant poodle (cf. Popham and Site C) – Rankin had an early gig, producing a report on how to finesse the project as being in the “provincial interest”.
LikeLike
From Murray Rankin’s bio on his Ministry’s website:
“He served as the Member of Parliament for Victoria from 2012 until 2019.”
“Previously he was a University of Victoria professor of law and taught environmental and administrative law. During this period, he developed groups such as the West Coast Environmental Law Association and the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre.”
“Throughout his career, he has been a dedicated advocate for climate action, accessible health care and child care and has worked extensively to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”
https://news.gov.bc.ca/ministries/indigenous-relations-and-reconciliation/biography
Minister Rankin’s previous pursuits involved effort to affect policy changes.
He has the pedigree and position now to effect policy changes. Let’s hope he recognizes the difference and seizes the opportunity.
Time to walk the talk.
LikeLiked by 1 person