Fallacio – the act of sucking up to voters with extensive promises to achieve political completion.

You know an election is coming when you start hearing the words: ” I promise…”  or ” An ‘X” government will commit to.. { fill in the blank} ”

So, in honour of the barrels of promises British Columbians are likely to hear in the months leading up to the May election, I felt the creation of the term ‘ fallacio’  was an excellent extension of the word fallacious, which means misleading, deceiving, delusive and disappointing. ( not to be confused with fellatio, which is something else entirely! )Fallacio: the act of sucking up to votes with extensive promised to achieve political completion.   Try it in a sentence! For example… “Christy Clark was performing fallacio at her latest luncheon,however the female only audience didn’t like what they experienced.”

Moving on this lovely Friday morning, I have a few items for you to check out and consider. First is this exceptional piece from Damien Gillis of the Common Sense Canadian: LNG, Fracking and Site C Dam: BC’s Looming Energy Boondoggle

Damien really does a great job of connecting the dots between the Pacific Trails Pipeline, Fracking and Site C, makes some compelling points I think everyone should consider, and takes a look at why the NDP are positioning themselves – or failing to- on the different projects. Here’s an excerpt:

“To my understanding, the NDP is on the fence or publicly committed to the above schemes – Site C, fracking, LNG – for three main reasons:
1. It is conscious of not allowing itself to be branded by its political opponents as “anti-progress” or “anti-industry”, especially after having taken a strong position against the Enbridge pipeline
2. It is wary of not stepping on the toes of First Nations who have signed onto to the LNG scheme – particularly the Haisla Nation of Kitimat, who have also been vocal opponents of the Enbridge pipeline.
3. It recognizes how much the province’s coffers have come to depend on royalties, licenses and other fees related to the natural gas industry and doesn’t want to disturb that flow, leading to big deficits that will play into its opponents’ hands.
While these are all politically understandable reasons for supporting this massive industrialization of northern BC, they do not excuse the arguments against this program.

In the very least, the environmental and health concerns associated with fracking and the loss of vital farmland and fish and wildlife habitat from Site C – not to mention the notion of massive public subsidies for an industry on less than solid ground going forward – should argue for a more mature position from the province’s government-in-waiting. They know this whole scheme is fraught with complications and this outright endorsement of it shows the NDP is ready to put short-term politics ahead of reasoned, long-term policy for the province.”

Go, read the link above and you be the judge.

Moving right along… if you haven’t heard, Rafe Mair has announced he was fired from the CBC, via facebook:

“After nearly 7 years I’ve been fired by the CBC’s Early Edition as part of their political panel.

Clearly I was fired because my dealing with the last two Liberal’s whom I saw and heard as party hacks, not evaluators of the political scene. To any who think this was because they were both women I hearken back to the days when Erin Chutter represented the “right”. Erin was candid, spoke in real terms not PR flack talk. And she was tough as nails. …I tried to ask the questions members of the public would ask and to hold governments’ feet to the fire. I’m used to being fired. My media career can be summed up thusly – I started when I was 50, was BC Broadcaster of the year, was twice short listed for the Michener Award, won the Michener award, was awarded the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement award at the Jack Webster Awards ceremony and am in the Canadian Association’s Hall of Fame – during which time I was fired three times.

Make that four”

Rafe went on to post a letter he sent to Karen Burgess, producer of CBC’s The Early Edition, here is an excerpt:

“You fired Erin Airton, a woman of the right, who never whined and always made forceful opinions known. You replaced her, one after the other, with two whineing  sycophants and because I called them for what they were, I was fired.”

Personally, I think it’s a loss for the CBC,  and if you feel the same way you might let them know you are interested in more balanced programming, but you can also enjoy Rafe blogging on HuffBC too. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rafe-mair/private-billing-health-care-brian-day_b_1822327.html

Last but not least… here is a video taken at action camp recently hosted by The Unis’tot’en, a clan of the Wet’suet’en Nation, who are protesting and blocking the Pacific Trails Pipeline, which runs right through the home land, and the Enbridge pipeline. They have blocked logging trucks and drillers working on the pipeline clearing, and when you see this video, you will see the peaceful people whose way of life is about to be changed forever, not the enviro terrorists Harper waxes on about. They explain why this pipeline makes it so easy for Enbridge to follow…and keep in mind, these people did not agree to this pipeline. As one woman, Molly, commented on my Huff BC post about this : “For example, the fifteen First Nations bands( who signed on with this pipeline) are mostly those under Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, which do not speak for Wet’suwet’en and have been giving misinformation to our people. When communications go out about PTP they say, at the end of every page, and I quote, “Remember, this is not Enbridge!”
Enjoy- I hope all of this makes you think a little more about where this province is headed.