Vaughn Palmer: Two NDPs, two opposing positions on LNG

Federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis. Photo by Blair Gable /Postmedia

Article content

VICTORIA — National NDP Leader Avi Lewis is campaigning this summer against fossil-fuel development, a timely theme during a wildfire season but a potentially awkward one for the party’s LNG-promoting provincial government here in B.C.

Article content

“At a time when we’re living through smoky skies, raging wildfires, and a government dead-set on making more money for big oil and gas, it’s easy to despair,” says the email the sent this week to party members.

Article content

Article content

Article content

“But instead, New Democrats from coast to coast to coast showed up to get organized and fight back.”

Article content

Article content

The reference is to a recent Lewis-led online webinar on the “green new deal,” the federal NDP’s call for an end to fossil fuel expansion in exchange for investment in renewables.

Article content

Included in the package for members was a link to the webinar, tool kits for organizers, a fact sheet, and the template for a petition that put it all into perspective: “We, the undersigned, call upon the government of Canada to end all subsidies and public financing of the fossil fuel industry, reject the proposal for an oil pipeline to the West Coast, implement an excess profits tax on oil and gas giants, and massively invest in renewables to build the economy of tomorrow.”

Article content

The whole package was targeted at the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Article content

“The federal government’s fast-tracking of fossil-intensive megaprojects is not only accelerating climate change, but also undermining Indigenous constitutional rights,” as the accompanying fact sheet puts it.

Article content

“Under the Liberal government, Canada has the worst track record for emissions reduction in the G7. Even America has done a better job.”

Article content

Article content

There could also be a spillover effect on the David Eby NDP government, as noted by the B.C. New Democrat who forwarded his copy of federal party material to me: “Given that a lot of the national NDP’s membership resides in B.C., I can’t see things like this from the national party as helpful to David as he’s trying to balance his positions.”

Article content

The federal party avoided saying anything directly embarrassing to Eby.

Article content

The only reference to an actual project was the Alberta-Ottawa proposal for a new oil pipeline to  Vancouver, which Eby grudgingly accepted because the province has no legal basis to stop it.

Article content

Plus there was this caveat: “The NDP has never said that we need to ‘shut it all down’ when it comes to fossil fuels. Our green new deal simply starts the necessary energy transition to address the climate emergency with the urgency it deserves.”

Article content

Nor was there any specific reference to liquefied natural gas.

Article content

However, Lewis has targeted the B.C. NDP government’s LNG enthusiasm in the past.

Article content

“My position is clear,” he declared during his successful bid for the leadership of the federal party. “I am unequivocally opposed to any new fossil fuel development including LNG.