To the Editor,
Until recently I was pretty certain on whom I would be casting my vote for in the upcoming B.C. provincial election.
The B.C. Liberals have had their kick at the can – 10 years of the leadership style of Gordon Campbell, then two more of Christy Clark have left many frustrated.
I believe it’s time for a change of government and planned to vote NDP. That was until April 26 when I listened to the leaders’ radio debate and Adrian Dix said he would oppose any expansion of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline from Alberta to the Burnaby refinery.
The yet-to-be-finalized expansion plan would probably result in loading about one tanker a day, up from the present situation of a tanker loading about once a week.
That’s suddenly become a major problem for Dix, who had previously assured us he would await final results from Kinder Morgan’s review, but may well have seen environmentalists deserting the NDP for the Green Party.
He seems to have bought into the ‘anti-tanker-fever’ phenomenon that’s swept B.C., and now declares he will ensure that Vancouver never becomes a tanker port.
Being a retired shipmaster with years of experience on a variety of vessels, including tankers, I find this an absolutely wrong-headed approach.
Vancouver is Canada’s port, and as such, exports Canada’s lucrative resources – one of which happens to be oil. There will be many missed opportunities of high-paying union jobs in the construction of the pipelines, the tank-farms, the loading facilities and then all the supplementary positions like tugboat crews, etc.
By Dix nixing Kinder Morgan’s expansion plans, he has lost my support, and for the first time in my life I’ll be putting my ‘X’ for a Tory candidate.
I realize that the chances of the B.C. Conservatives winning seats are somewhat minimal, and Dix may well be B.C.’s next premier, but he will do so without my vote.
Bernie Smith
Parksville
