By Walter Neufeld. I’ve voted for the Liberal party nearly all my adult life but their recent refusal to settle the BC Teacher’s strike via Binding Arbitration makes clear that they’ve gamed BC students, teachers, parents & the public all along.
And it’s not the first time but now many like-minded supporters are losing patience with the Clark government’s intransigence.
Today’s BC Liberals have now demonstrated that they are fundamentally disinterested in any good-faith negotiations, mediation, arbitration or court rulings even though those are the principle vehicles used for achieving fair dispute settlements in a democracy. But the Clark government has rejected them all.
On the other hand, the Clark government has spent an inordinate amount of time, energy and money to make the public believe the exact opposite is true.
The question is why?
We are beginning to connect the dots & the emerging image is disturbing.
For the past decade or so, both the Harper & BC Liberal governments have systematically undercut & rejigged all Ministries/Acts legislation that might impede their respective ideological agendas. The hard-won legislation governing those ministries was aborted without the consent of the majority of Canadians for whom it was established in the first place. The best interests of our nation were thereby hijacked.
In lockstep, the Harper & BC Liberal governments have likewise targeted all other bodies that might stand in the way of their ideological goals but which are not as easily hijacked as the targeted legislation: the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of BC, the free press (note esp. Harper’s attacks on the CBC), the protectors of Canada’s environment, First Nations etc.
And now, BC teachers.
Why is the BC government so determined to face down BC teachers?
Both BC teachers, their curriculum and the students they produce are currently
at odds with its questionable ideology.
In order to win the ideological war, the Harper/BC Liberal governments need to change the ideology of the curriculum, the people who teach it & the minds of the graduating students. They need to raise a generation of graduates that neither see nor question the expressions of that ideology:
Mount Polley’s water is safe to drink.
It is good to subsidize the industry with your taxes.
Resource extraction builds communities.
Trust & Obey. Amen?
***
Will we capitulate in the face of this assault by the Clark government?
Hope not.
—
*Walter Neufeld was born and raised in Abbotsford. He manages a development company operating in BC and in Alberta. Walter has been a critic of the provincial government’s dysfunctional Mines Act for about 12 years. Neufeld is the president of the Fraser Valley Regional District Citizens Association (FVRDCA). Most recently, he’s critiqued both Honourable Randy Hawes and the gravel industries Aggregate Pilot Project which he believes to be a harmful private production document .