Latest / Political Capital with Rob Shaw / July 17, 2026 - Another forest mill closure, new leader for CentreBC, involuntary care beds | Political Capital

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July 17, 2026 - Another forest mill closure, new leader for CentreBC, involuntary care beds | Political Capital · Political Capital with Rob Shaw

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Check Podcasts.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, and welcome to Political Capital, your source for
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: all the latest and BC politics. I'm your host, Rob Shaw.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: listening on the audio podcast or watching on YouTube, check
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: plus or check TV. We got one more show next
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: week in the summer schedule and then we're off or
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: break until the fall. But we've got lots to talk
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: about this week. Let's bring in the pod squad. Angelo Isiduro,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the BC Conservative Parties Executive Director, Jeff Ferrier, longtime New
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Democrat strategist and co founder of Frame Point Public Affairs,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for being here. Jillian is off
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: this week, but we are going to fill our topic
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: box with lots of topics here and we're going to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: start with the forest sector. We've talked about this on
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the show several times, but another major mail closure this
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: week in Prince George can for announcing the Northwood pulp
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: mill closure. More than three hundred jobs lost, the company
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: citing global pulp market shifts and persistent challenges accessing fiber
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: saying and losing a lot of money and it's not sustainable.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: And from there, everyone talking about what the government should
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: be doing what's happening to the forestry sector. Can anyone
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: do anything to help protect these jobs? Jeff, let's start
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: with you on this. Not good for Prince Steorge to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: have this mill closure. It's the latest and it's serious.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I think there's twenty mills that have closed and be
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: seen the last two years. What did you make of
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the closure, the reasons, the government's response, and the kind
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of the calls for reform that we're hearing out there.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I grew up in a forest retown and job
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  Speaker 3: loss like this is devastating for workers, for families, small businesses,
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  Speaker 3: and municipal taxpayers are going to have to pick up
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: the pay the freight for a big taxpayer going down.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I think this shows that Trump's softwood tariffs that are
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: forty five percent on British Columbia are having a real
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: effect that Trump wants them to have. It's causing sawmills
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  Speaker 3: to close, which causes pulp mills like Northwood to have
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: higher input costs because the chips they use to make
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  Speaker 3: pulp are scarce, makes them expensive and it puts them
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: in the untenable spot that they are right now where
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: they can't possibly make money when then they have to
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  Speaker 3: you know, buy logs to make chips, to make pulp.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: And I think what's needed here is that we need
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  Speaker 3: Ottawa to step up assist KUSMA negotiations put softwood front
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: and center as they have with cars and steel, or
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  Speaker 3: else we're going to be in even tougher shape in
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: the months ahead.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Angelo the company, you know, citing the fiber issue and
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the sector, pointing to provincial policies as well. Definitely, softwood, lumber,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: tariffs and global markets are part of it, as Jeff said,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: but there's also a provincial part of it here too,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: with calls for the government to do more provincially on
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: permitting and reconciliation and old growth and stuff like that.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: What do you make of all this, Well, nobody.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Is doubting global realities, you know, outside of the United States,
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  Speaker 4: even China has increased its own domestic export of lumber,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: So nobody's doubting any of that. But the reality is
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: since the NDP took power, you've had over thirty mills
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  Speaker 4: close in this province. Anybody who works in this industry,
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: who knows people that works in this industry, they'll tell
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: you it does feel like a nonslaught. It feels like
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: an assault on the industry itself. Punitive permitting delays, punitive
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: stompage fees, policies that make it very difficult for these
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: meals to actually stay open and continue to employ British Columbians. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: you have three hundred people in Prince George and their
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: families that are now in a very difficult position. So
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: it's easy to blame the United States or to blame
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: other global partners, but the reality is we are very
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: punitive in how we manage this industry and since the
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: NDP took power, countless mills have closed.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Is there We'll just go around one more time here
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  Speaker 2: on this Angel's stick with you first, but is there
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  Speaker 2: something that the province should be doing and is it
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  Speaker 2: not happening for a reason? You know, you hear unions
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: and the industry kind of say, does this government at
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  Speaker 2: this time even value forestry? Does it put it up
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  Speaker 2: there with mining and other sectors that is trying to
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: promote right now, one of the suggestions from Kofi the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Council Forest Industries is why don't we put forestry permitting
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  Speaker 2: into a fast track like we put mining permitting and
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: then things could get done faster. But I'm not sure
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  Speaker 2: there's the political will. Do you how do you sort
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: of read the government's interest in forestry.
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  Speaker 1: It is a matter of political will.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, certainly, on mining, the government has been putting
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  Speaker 4: a lot of attention into that sector. But when it
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  Speaker 4: comes to forestry, the NDP are seemingly afraid of activists,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: of environmental activists that may block export and processing of lumber.
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  Speaker 4: So it does come down to the political will to
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  Speaker 4: adopt policies of other jurisdictions like Denmark or other Scandinavian
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  Speaker 4: countries that have fast tracking and their permitting. They can
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  Speaker 4: absolutely do that and it would invigorate the whole sector.
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  Speaker 1: Would it fix.
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  Speaker 4: Every single problem that again we're dealing globally, No, it wouldn't.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: But taking away fees and increasing permit times or making
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: permit times quicker would certainly help. So it comes down
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  Speaker 4: to the political will, and frankly, the NDP just don't
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: appear to be a government that actually value forestry or
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: forestry workers. They appear to be a government that wants
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: to prioritize other sectors. And we're in a boiling frog
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: situation where slowly but surely this industry is going to
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  Speaker 4: be wiped out and it's unfortunate because it's an industry
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  Speaker 4: that is frankly at the core of the history of
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: our province.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeff, what do you think of the calls from
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  Speaker 2: the sector for more priority from the provincial government and
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  Speaker 2: cut through the red tape and some of the reconciliation
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: log gems we have on timing for planning and you
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  Speaker 2: know fast track it like mining kind of thing.
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  Speaker 3: It's that would be very challenging. I will point out
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: on the closure of mills that are happening now. If
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: you remember when John Horgan was running for premiere back
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: in the old days, it was a talking point of
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: his that the previous BC Liberal government oversaw the closure
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: of mills and the dislocation of tens of thousands of
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: four sector workers at the time. So it's a trend
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: that has been happening over years, in years and years,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: and there's no doubt that the four sector is an
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: in crisis and that this crisis is a matter of
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: national importance. You could change up permits all you want,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: but if tariffs make your product uneconomic across the globe,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: that is not something that you know permitting will help with.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: There's a difference between Scandinavia and North America. I think
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: the people who the government are actually afraid of are
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Americans on the other side of the software lumber dispute,
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  Speaker 3: who would use who use any sign of government intervention
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: as a reason to hike tariffs even higher. But you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: all that said, all that said, if here's someone sitting
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: at Tim's and Prince George, none of this matters. You
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: want government to act, And I think you know what
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: the Premiere is doing as he's lobbying Ottawa to treat
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: BC like Ontario and.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Quebec on KUSMA come to the table with.
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  Speaker 3: Support for the four sector like he has for our
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: friends in Eastern Canada.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's take a break here. When we come back
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: and talk about new involuntary treatment beds in Prince George
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: but not in Vancouver. Will hit that topic next well,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: welcome mack. Premier David Ebe announcing the slow but steady
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: expansion of involuntary treatment beds for people with concurrent mental
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: health and addictions issues also just addictions treatment beds in general.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Renovated beds in Prince George at a facility in twelve
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  Speaker 2: new purpose built beds this week plus another sixty at
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: a site in Surrey. Vancouver's mayor, though, can sim out saying, look,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Vancouver hasn't got any under David Ebe new involuntary treatment beds.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: What's going on with the city, with the downtown east
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Side and the epicenter of the toxic drug crisis. Lots
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: of criticism and questions going back and forth there, Jeff,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: why don't we start with you on this one? Is
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: it weird that Vancouver's premiers out in different parts of
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the province but not in Vancouver on involuntary treatment beds?
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  Speaker 2: And is he on the right track with opening new
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  Speaker 2: treatment beds like this?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I think the government is on the right track with
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: opening new voluntary care beds. I think everyone agrees that
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: people who need this kind of care, who can't make
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: that decision for themselves, should get it quickly and close
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: to home. I know that BC has four hundred and
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: fifty five involuntary care beds in the Vancouver area, not
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: strictly downtown Vancouver, but those are beds that can be
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: used by folks who are there. It's part of two
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  Speaker 3: thousand beds that the province has in places like Prince
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  Speaker 3: George and Surrey and elsewhere. I think the key challenge
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  Speaker 3: in ramping these up is a staff shortage. We're having
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: a hard time attracting doctors and nurses for just you know,
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: the broad based needs of the province. Finding enough to
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: staff these high needs health facilities and programs is even
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: even tougher. And I would just I would say to
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Ken Sim, you know what would have really helped with
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  Speaker 3: staff in places in Vancouver is if he had kept
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: his promise to hire one hundred nurses that he made
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  Speaker 3: in the last election then did not.
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  Speaker 2: Do Yeah, Angelo, I mean there are municipal politics at
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: play here, but Vancouver not seeming to get you know,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: the same priority. Does that strike you as odd? And
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: what do you think of the slow but steady expansion
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  Speaker 2: of involuntary care here?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it is odd. It's odd because let's go back
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: in time for a moment. Up until the twenty twenty
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: four provincial election, the NDP were completely against this notion
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  Speaker 4: of mandatory treatment or involuntary care for people who are addicted.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: And then they flip flopped on that issue and very
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: proudly came out with can sim and said we're going
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  Speaker 4: to open up hundreds of mandatory care beds in Vancouver.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: That's a promise David be made. Fast forward two and
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  Speaker 4: a half years later, and not a single bet has
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  Speaker 4: actually opened in Vancouver. The fact is it's good that
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: involuntary care is opening up in other cities and jurisdictions.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: We need that all over the province.
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  Speaker 4: I think what the mayor is getting at, though, is
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: that Vancouver is the epicenter of this issue, not only
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: in Canada, but honestly, potentially.
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  Speaker 1: Even in North America.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Vancouver's is probably one of the worst jurisdictions for this
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  Speaker 4: crisis needs to be treated like that. It needs to
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: be frankly given its due. I do think it's odd
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  Speaker 4: that some people from the government have suggested, well, you know,
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  Speaker 4: where the location of these involuntary beds are is not
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: necessarily the issue. I can go to a hospital in
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  Speaker 4: Surrey even though I live in Vancouver. That may all
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: be the case. The reality is the people who need it,
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: the volume of people who need it, are in Vancouver.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: They're not necessarily in these other areas, even though these
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: other areas do have their own populations that absolutely need
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: the care beats. So yes, absolutely, Prince George, Surrey open
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: up those facilities do what we need to do, but
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: it is profoundly odd that Vancouver has no beds, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: the speed at which this is actually getting done is
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: also concerning.
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  Speaker 2: Part of me thinks that it must have something to
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: do with the fact that, you know, former Vancouver Mayor
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Larry Campbell is reviewing the Downtown east Side and he's
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: coming out publicly and saying it's a massive organizations that
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: you can't follow the money. They don't want to talk
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: like there's like a lot of reforms, but the government's
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: been talking about reforming the Downtown Eats side for a
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: long time, so maybe it's tied up in that some
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: sort of vision, but I don't know's it seems odd
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: to me. We're actually gonna take another quick break here
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: because we got another topic. I want to spend some
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: time talking about to close off the show Center BC
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: with a new leader, maybe some new hope. We'll talk
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: about that when we come back after this. Well, welcome
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: back a existing political party. You've probably never heard of
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Center BC getting a new leader to try and revitalize
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: its political fortunes. Karean Kirkpatrick, former BC Liberal BC United MLA,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: on her way out and the party announcing a new leader.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: We're recording this on Friday. Depending on when you hear this,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: you may already know the new leader of Center BC.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I believe it's going to be former BC Liberal MLA
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Mike Bernier, who was a cabinet minister, the education minister
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: under the BC Liberals the Peace River South MLA for
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: BC United until BC United folded. The BC Conservatives chose
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: not to make him their candidate. He ran anyways, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: came in a distant second twenty five percent of the
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: vote to what is now Peace Rivers South MLA Larry Neufeldt,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: who got seventy percent of the vote. So we're gonna
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: operator under the assumption here that this is Mike Burnier
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: as the new leader of the BC Center or Center
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: BC party. The idea, I guess AT's start with this question,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: and Angel I'll start with you on this one. Is
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: there room for Center BC as the BC Conservatives track
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: further to the right under cary Lyn Finley. We hear
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: lots of talk about it. People maybe want some alternative
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: to the NDP and the Conservatives. Is there a hope
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: with someone like Mike Burnier or a new leader like
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: that under Center BC.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Do you think no?
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: And there's a few reasons why. Growing a political party
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: is very very difficult. Growing a political party from scratch
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: is very very difficult. I know because when we took
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: over the BC Conservatives it was pulling out two percent,
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: which is roughly we're Center BC. He has had no money,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: no traction, no legitimacy in the House, and it took
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: an incredible amount of effort and quite a bit of
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: luck to get it off the ground to the point
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: where it could supplant to the BC Liberals slash BC United.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Center BC is in a very difficult position where it's
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: a party that exists in an environment where you have
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: the NDP and you have the not ENDP party and
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: still for many British Columbians, the BC Conservatives are that
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: opposition party. Right, So Center BC under Krinkerpatrick, for the
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: past year and a half now couldn't really get off
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: the ground at all. It couldn't really become much of anything.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: We didn't hear much about Center BC. It had sort
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: of this brief moment. Now, if we are presupposing that
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: it is Mike Burnier, I once again don't see it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: I mean Mike Burnier is an MLA former MLA who.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Was squarely rejected.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: In his own community by a lot. He ran as
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: an independent and was completely a serrated by Larry Neufeld.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: Mike Bernier is also heavily disliked by many British Columbians.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: He's frankly an architect for the Soji program that is
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: disliked among conservatives. So I don't see where the room
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: is for Center BC at this time. It's very, very
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: difficult to build the party from scratch, and I don't
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: see the path for this party.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Jeff, what do you think?
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I think Mike Burnier is a decent guy who did
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: a good job when he was in government. And I
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: think that not bullying gay lesbian kids in school, trans
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: kids in school is something to be proud of if
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: you are a legislator putting in programs to deal with that.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: The question was, do I think there's room for Center BC?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: No? I agree with Angelo.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: No.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: I think the political class believes that centrist option equals
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: sure victory. I think that's a misread of the political terrain.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: The political terrain as I see it, is that center
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: left and centrist folks who like a technocratic kind of
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: government support the BCNDP an awful lot. I think the
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: real battle for votes are not going to be in
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: the center. I think it's going to be on the extremes,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: the angry left and the angry right. I think the
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: BC Conservatives are doing well with both of those. The
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: VCNDP needs to do better with both of those. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: I think the party that wins the next election will
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: be the one that succeeds at appealing to them the most.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Not to oversimplify this, but who would it if we're
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: going to operate from the premise and we talk about
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: this every election that, you know, inserting more parties hurts
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the two main parties who are kind of fighting it out,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: and maybe upsets the balance of power on becoming a spoiler.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: We talked about that with the Greens. You know, if
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: they run a strong candidate and a writing who does
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: that hurt? Who does that gain? If center BC does
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: take off, who benefits and who does it hurt? Does
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: it pull away from the NDP, does it pull away
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: from the Conservatives? Is it pull away from both? How
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: would it change the dynamics if they did get successful angel.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: It's hard to say so. In the last election, a
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: majority of federal NDP voters voted for the BCNDP, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: also a majority of federal Liberal voters also voted for
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: the NDP, so that may suggest that the NDP, at
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: least in the last election, had more access to what
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: you would call, you know, the mushy middle with some
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: of those voters. On the other hand, the BC Conservatives
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: did really well in areas in the lower mainlands, such
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: as Surrey.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: We won with ethnic minorities.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: We went in Richmond with you know, Southeast Asian and
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: East Asian communities. We won with blue collar, hard hat
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: communities that may otherwise have gone in a different direction.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: So it's a difficult it's a difficult question to answer.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: To be honest, I think that depending on where they run,
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: there is a possibility that it may harm the NDP
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: slightly more, particularly in urban ridings. But I think ultimately
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: when I look at the voters, I think in a
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: general election of context, they look at who can actually win.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: If you're on the NDP side, you look at the NDP.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: If you're on the BC Conservative side, you look at
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: who is my referendum candidate, Who is the candidate that's
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: going to be able to supplant the NDP. So to
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Jeff's point, there's a greater thread on the fringes in
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: the sense that they eat away at you where a center.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: BC by occupying the center, actually occupies an area of
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: the electorate that is not necessarily that active politically. They're
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: going to vote during elections, but they're not going to
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: show up in doorknock. I know that sounds silly because
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: most people are in the middle or donate right, But
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: most British Columbians are in the middle. But when it
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: comes to the actual nuts and bolts of politics, they don't.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: You know, you need the grassroots, you need the hardy,
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: you know, hardcore activists.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So it's going to be very difficult for them to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: take off.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point to Jeff. What do you
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: think is more risk to one part of or another
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: if they do.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I don't think that they have a lot of chance
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: to pull away from either party. Maybe a little bit,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: as Angelo says the NDP in some urban writings, And
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I think the reason for that is because I don't
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: think the British Columbians are sitting around analyzing who sits
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: where on the political spectrum I think everyday voters are
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: stressed on fairness and affordability. I think they can't afford housing,
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: can't afford kids education, having a hard time affording groceries.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: They feel like they're stretched by a system that they
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: believe is stacked against them. And the next election will
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: be about who's to blame for that and who will
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: fix the system.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: It's why you.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: See Carolyn Finley railing against media and elite. She wants
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: to put the blame there. It's why you see the
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: BCNDP starting to see glimpses of them going after a
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: big corporate interests. Everyone wants to be on the side
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: of folks who want government to fight powerful interests that
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: are conspiring working against them, and I think that's where
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: the election will be one or lost, not about political spectrum.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just really quickly, Jillian is not here to maybe
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: a minute each. Does it do anything to the Greens?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: They seem to have carved out a pretty far or
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: left voice here that wouldn't be in my mind affected
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: from center BC. But does it do anything to them Magelo, No.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: I don't think so, especially given that they don't have seats.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Right if the center BC party had two MLAs in it,
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: then they would actually take up time in the House.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: That would be a problem for the Greens. They need
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: all the time they can get in the actual chamber.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: But notwithstanding that, I don't see how it affects the Greens.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: I think Emily Lowan has carved out her niche and
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: she's focused on it, and she's focused on her plan,
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: So I don't think it affects them, Nor does it
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: affect one BC, who have been basically missing an action
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: for the past few months now. So I think you
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: know this is going to come and go.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Jeff, do you think it either impact there quickly?
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: It might?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: It might.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: I think instead of seeing the NDP tack to the
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: center and this upcoming election as they have in the past,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: they might tack more to the to the left and
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: that fight against powerful corporate interests that's been a core
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: part of Emily Lowan's narrative to now you might see
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: the NDP want to occupy that that area because Conservatives
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: and New Democrats alike are drawn to that.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: See NDP candidates bringing the buzzer on Chip Wilson's mansion
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: in the election campaign at Manning. He come out and
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: explain himself kind of interesting, but it's scared. Yeah, you
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: never know, but okay, yeah interesting. We'll watch Center BC
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: and see where it goes and if it goes anywhere,
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: and what happens there. Okay, let's bring up our plays
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: of the week, where we pick some topics that are
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: interesting or funny or catch our eye out there in
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the political not just provincial, but sometimes larger political world. Jeff,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: do you have a play the week you want to
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: share this week?
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Sure do.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: My political play of the week goes to the executives.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: It can for because twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six,
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: quite a year company lost millions and millions of dollars,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: recorded millions more in asset write downs, they've closed mills
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: and laid off workers, and management was rewarded accordingly. The
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: executives received millions in compensation, including performance bonuses and discretionary awards.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: The CEO, for example, received two point seventy five million dollars,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: which was nine hundred and forty six dollars salary, almost
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: seven hundred thousand dollars bonus, and a million and other compensation,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: including a nine hundred and fifty thousand discretionary award. But
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: to be fair, the compensation committee says the corporate performance
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: only reached seventy three percent of targets, so everyone everyone
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: had to make sacrifices. For workers, that means of losing
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: their livelihoods. For executives, it meant receiving seventy three percent
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: of a So congratulations camp for executives, proving that in
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: BC Forestry, the safest place to work isn't the mill
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: in the boardroom.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It is always infuriating to hear that as a guy
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: who's worked in media for a long time, who's watched
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: you know, his media corporations crumble into bankruptcy and insolvency,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: and then as they're laying people off, the executives claim
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: massive bonuses and retention bonuses because they need to be
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: preserved to help see the company through the failure that
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: they helped cause. Just makes me mad to see that.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So good a good call there can for also interesting
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: enough to dunk on them here, but I think they're
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: spending like sixty million dollars or eighty million dollars buying
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: a facility in Alberta. They just announced a little while ago,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So they're investing elsewhere while closing in BC so okay,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: good one, Angelo, what's your play the week.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: Well, municipal elections are on, so we know what that means.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: It means a lot of announcements for municipal leaders that
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: may or may not mean something. So my play of
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: the week actually goes to the Mayor of Vancouver, Ken
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: sim who, when discussing this issue of the lack of
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: involuntary care beds in Vancouver, issued sort of a vague
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: threat to the provincial government.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: He said, you know, we expect a.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: Response or else there will be action. And he was
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: pressed on that issue of what that action would be,
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: and it was basically, we'll see, but there's going to
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: be something. And I sort of respect that in a
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: way that it gets headlines. And we're on the heels
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: of what could be a very competitive municipal race in Vancouver.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: So we're seeing these municipal leaders, you know, beginning to
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: take pot shots maybe at other jurisdictions as a means
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: of creating an US versus them type narrative.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: So very interesting.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: I recommend people, you know, look into what their local
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: municipal politics are shaping up to be, because it's getting interesting.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I saw that in his press release in his
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: press conference too, where he said the city might take
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: unprecedented steps on the issue of BCN. He didn't explain
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: what it is that. I don't know what that means,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: but I guess it could be some wild thing on
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: the eve of the election to start doing stuff that
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But I thought you were talking about it.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: I thought you were going to pick the guy who
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: showed the parksport commissioner showed up in a speedo to
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: the kids pool announcement.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought about that. I thought about that. I
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: decided against it in the end. But also again, fun
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: local municipal politics, big debates over whether you should be
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: able to reserve a spot at your local pool at
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: kids beach versus walking in so I much prefer those
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: types of debates versus how many involuntary care beds we
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: could open. They're much lighter debates there. If only we
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: could live in that world.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Was I the only person who saw that picture of
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: this balding fellow with interesting sunglasses in a short sleeve
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: pattern shirt and a guy standing behind him with no
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: shirt on? Am I the only person who thought of
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: the trailer park boys and mister Leahy and Randy.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: It was when you put what you would suggest that
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I immediately thought, you're right. I do see that.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: People on Twitter did post about that.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Just a striking visual, very.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Very odd, very odd. But we're entering silly season. Elections
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: produce odd visuals of weird things. So I'm going to
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: for my play the week, I'm going to pick the three.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: This is a more of an international thing. I get
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: the three Michigan Republicans, or actually there's four of them.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: I wrote a letter of the Prime Minister Mark Karney
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: saying your smoke from northern Ontario has drifted into the
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: United States. It is unacceptable harming the lungs of a Americans.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: And they incused a Canada of chronic under investment in
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: wildfire reduction, saying, and this is their quote, sovereignty comes
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: with a big social media campaign warning Canada that no
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: excuses a final warning. I just I don't know what that, oh,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: any of that means. It's crazy, you know. When the
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: United States has wildfires, of which they have many, Canada
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: sends crews to help, including a Canadian helicopter pilot who
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: died fighting wildfires in Colorado this week. When we have wildfires,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: the Americans complain about the smoke. What a dumb letter
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: from those three four Michigan Republicans. What a dumb strategy.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And I don't know what they mean by our sovereignty
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: is at risk because of smoke from the wildfires.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: But.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Decation of war, I guess.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: So can I channel Jillian here because it's not able
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: to be with us and we miss her. But something something,
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: something climate change, something something American one of the biggest
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: emitator of greenhouse gas gases something something.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: This is stupid, Yeah, I mean, I know we all
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: get upset about it, like we saw the pictures of
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Toronto looked like blade Runner with the orange skies, and
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: when we've had wildfires NBC in bad years and the
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: haze hits Metro Vancouver, people get upset. But that this
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: solution is not to threaten your neighboring country. It's you know,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: probably to help. Anyways, what stupid time we live in
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: sometimes with politics And that was a stupid letter. So
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: not a stupid show though, great show thanks to Jeff
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and Angelo for being here, Thanks to you for listening.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Make sure you subscribe. One more show left in the
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: summer season next week before break until the All and
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: we will see that next week on Political Capital. M
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: m m hm