Skip to content

Leave aside the rhetoric

Editor: MP John Weston made the national TV news on June 18. As he rushed past and was asked about Northern Gateway, his brief response was that he believed in science.

Editor:

MP John Weston made the national TV news on June 18.  As he rushed past and was asked about Northern Gateway, his brief response was that he believed in science.  What science is that John? Climate science? Geology and the study of tectonic plates? The science on the interaction of dilbit once spilled? Maybe the science that has identified the ecological and health impacts of tar sands extraction?

I haven’t noticed you ever address any of these issues.

There is really no need to summarize the tremendous risks associated with piping and marine transport of diluted bitumen, particularly through the B.C. terrain, along B.C.’s rivers, down the Douglas Channel and through some of the world’s wildest seas in the Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance. There are very good reasons why the large majority of B.C. residents have no wish to put tens of thousands of current and sustainable jobs at risk to simply supply Asia with a climate killing product from another place. Considerations, Mr. Weston, you never discuss.

I submit this comes from a very different view of the role of an MP between yourself and some others. While you like to say you listen and take constituents’ opinions to Ottawa, there are MPs like the NDP’s Nathan Cullen who actually do this.

In forming his position on economic development in the northwest (including Gateway), Cullen held more than one series of open, public meetings throughout his riding at which he ‘listened’.  It appears that you have limited consultation to small select groups in controlled situations that lend themselves to still shot photographs.

Leave aside the rhetoric that is more appropriate to an Enbridge commercial, John, and learn why very large numbers of Coasters have gathered to protest this initiative. It may not be too late.

Paul Johnston, Roberts Creek