January is the month to look back at the year that was, and forward to the one coming up.
My New Year’s column with my thoughts in both directions was ready to go, but then I watched Premier Christy Clark being interviewed on CBC TV.
She was explaining why we had to build the Site C dam now because it would be needed by our children and grandchildren.
Ditto the development of Liquid Natural Gas.
It is encouraging to have a politician looking ahead farther than the next election, but the Site C and the LNG development will guarantee nothing for future generations.
This isn’t the 1950s, or even the 90s. How did Ms. Clark get left in the last century?
Given how quickly today’s technology is changing the world, traditional hydro power could be obsolete in this generation, never mind the next ones.
If the premier is so worried about the welfare of those future generations, she could give some thought to the long term impacts Site C and the LNG will have on the Peace River country.
Those impacts on the land and water will be irreversible.
Ms. Clark and her teenaged son will be in India over the holidays to help build a school in a rural village.
According to reports, Ms. Clark hopes the experience will teach the teenager the importance of empathy by showing him how he can do things to improve other people’s lives.
When they return she might explain to him why B.C. has the highest child poverty rate in Canada.
The numbers have gone up 2.5 per cent in the last year.
The Liberal government’s clawbacks have been blamed for the jump.
Now back to New Year’s comments.
My hope is that 2015 will bring no disasters to the Cariboo Chilcotin, just health and happiness, and that any controversies, political or otherwise, will be settled amicably with good will on all sides.
Wouldn’t that be lovely.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
