Black and white and green

David is a smart guy whose bread'n'butter is producing an alternative online publication supported by critics of Campbell's BC Liberals – the NDP and their union and new age social enterprise backers. I've heard him talk about BC's government and he practically spits when describing them. It's as though they're veritable demons in his eyes, unworthy of a compliment or even a balanced political analysis.

The gist of what David is arguing is not that the BC government is, on the one hand, trying to encourage greener alternatives with a fuel tax that is offset by an income tax reduction, and on the other, exacerbating the problem by supporting fossil fuel (coal & natural gas) development. It's more subtle than that. It's a shout out to Green voters to align themselves with the NDP, suggesting that Campbell's revenue neutral fuel tax is a ruse to divide left wing voters (as if all Green voters are left wing, which they're not).

The NDP party have been attacking the fuel tax as an affront to the "little guy" who can't afford the extra 2.43 cents per litre.

Unfortunately, it's not as black and white as Beers insists. No other government in office in recent memory been more bold than BC's on dealing with one of the key sources of carbon emissions: you and me. We all want politicians to step up and make the right decisions for our future, but when they do as in this case, they get pilloried by critics. That's politics, I guess.

Down south in the USA, Barack Obama has urged his fellow Americans to consider their communities and their country first, before their need for things like single-occupancy car commuting. I bet Obama dreams of having the ability to create incentives like the fuel charge widely used in Europe, and now here in British Columbia.