John Horgan lets the facade drop with cynical, ugly comments after green-lighting Site C

By now the news that the British Columbia NDP government has betrayed the (sorta) promise it made to stop the building of the Site C dam is rippling like a shock wave through those New Democrats left who still take the party's pledges and claims to be a real alternative seriously.


The decision to green-light Site C is, indeed, a terrible one. It hurts the Horgan government's claims to want to be an environmental leader and will without doubt undermine the highroad approach it has tried to stake out in opposing the pipeline expansion supported by NDP oil industry hack Rachel Notley one province over in Alberta. It reeks of the long tradition the party has of promising the bare minimum and then failing to deliver even that, especially as this government had already backpedaled on its minimum wage pledge. It smacks of a sad pandering and cowardice.

None of this should be terribly surprising from the government of a party that has shifted as far as it has towards the Third Way centrism that parties like the Labour Party in the UK are now abandoning. The NDP outside of possibly Nova Scotia has become little more than a debased echo of a social democratic party whose increasingly tenuous connection to a now almost mythical socialist past consists of celebrating the fact that Tommy Douglas was voted the "Greatest Canadian" a few years ago.

But even with its recent history both in BC and across the country, Premier John Horgan still managed to surprise by, almost uniquely, actually dropping the facade and pretense of being something better or a part of a fundamental shift by saying:

When it comes to reconciliation and working with Indigenous leadership there has been over 150 years of disappointment in British Columbia. I’m not the first person to stand before you and disappoint Indigenous people."

"There has been over 150 years of disappointment in British Columbia. I'm not the first to stand before you and disappoint Indigenous people"

Let that comment sink in for a moment.

It is where you see the real face, motives and feelings of Horgan and his government come through in all of their cynicism and ugliness.

Remember it the next time you are yet again peddled the line that the NDP is fundamentally different from the other mainstream capitalist parties, that we have "no choice" on the left but to support it and that it remains a party committed to real change and a new type of society and politics.

No, Mr. Horgan, you are not the first to stand before us and disappoint Indigenous people. And you are likely not the last. But you can no longer have the benefit of the doubt from anyone on the left. Your true colours are on full display.

See also: The Constant Image Gardeners

See also: To Rachel Notley -- Climate change is destroying millions of workers jobs and lives around the world, so please, smarten up