As news goes, it was hardly surprising.
Premier Christy Clark’s announcement that the province has issued an environmental assessment certificate for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project was a bit of a yawner. Is anyone really surprised that the province has declared itself satisfied with Kinder Morgan’s efforts to meet B.C.’s five long-talked-about conditions?
But there’s no denying the news comes at an interesting time.
With a provincial election looming, you can guarantee this project will become a football of the largest political proportions. Who’s going to throw said football, and in what direction, depends very much upon what position you play in B.C. politics.
First onto the field will undoubtedly be B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, who has absolutely nothing to lose and a whole lot to potentially gain by making this the biggest, baddest, most-talked-about football that has ever been played. You can count on him to bring this whole brouhaha up at every possible opportunity – but whether his efforts will be able to reach more than the folks who already agree with him remains to be seen.
Premier Christy Clark, too, will be in play on this one. She’s already nimbly navigating the field with her take that this is really a federal approval process, and her job was to make sure B.C. benefits as much as possible from a pipeline that was going to happen anyway. Her declaration that she’s doing the best possible job for B.C.’s economy will once again resonate with some – but will she win herself any new supporters?
In perhaps the weakest of all possible positions is B.C. NDP leader John Horgan, who has the unenviable task of balancing two often polarized sides of his own base – the environmentally inclined “left” and the resource-based union-jobs-for-ordinary-folks lobby.
He’ll have supporters in urban areas who will be sure to join Mayor Derek Corrigan on the “pipelines are bad” side. But what about the seats Horgan needs to win in the Interior and the North, where the issue plays very differently? And will the anti-pipeline vote rally behind his New Democratic candidates, or will Weaver’s Greens be a real threat?
Only time will tell where this football lands.
But at least the game will be worth watching.
