The day after E-Day: A great day to organize!
Good afternoon - hope you’ve had a great weekend so far! It’s Sunday, Oct. 25, the day after the 2020 B.C. provincial election, and so The Thorn is offering this special transmission outside of our regularly scheduled programming. If you’re reading this, thank you for being among our first 100+ subscribers. If you like what we’re doing so far, please share with your networks!
The day after E-Day: A great day to organize!
The BC NDP won a majority government last night. Current results have the NDP winning 55 ridings, to 29 for the BC Liberals, and 3 for the BC Greens. A few of the close races could still swing either way, once the votes of the hundreds of thousands of British Columbians who voted by mail are counted.
The BC Liberals are the big losers from last night’s election. Whatever the margin of victory for the NDP, it’s clear that the people of B.C. don’t want to return to the rule of the corrupt, right-wing Liberals.
Even though the NDP won what looks like a clear majority, there are big struggles ahead that will determine the course of this province over the next four years. The NDP won this election by pitching themselves as prudent managers of the pandemic crisis. This was a centrist, cautious campaign that nevertheless proposed to expand some important social democratic policies.
We are also hopeful about the strong showing for some truly progressive candidates across the province. In Vancouver-Langara, NDP candidate Tesicca Truong sits 647 votes behind Liberal Michael Lee, with mail-in ballots remaining to be counted. And 19-year-old Jaeden Del Torre, currently less than a thousand votes behind his BC Liberal competitor, appears to have narrowly missed being part of the surprising orange wave that swept Richmond. These two represented the hopes of many that a new generation of climate and housing champions could emerge to shake up the legislature. Fingers crossed for Tesicca and Jaeden!
But.
The BC NDP, in this campaign, doubled down on LNG and the fracking that goes with it. This disastrous, heavily subsidized fossil fuel development was once mocked by leading NDP members as Christy Clark’s “pipedream.” The NDP is now going to fully own this climate nightmare, unless they listen to the movements urging them to change course.
So as John Horgan is set to become the first two-term NDP premier in B.C. history, he brings with him the baggage of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline being pushed through Wet'suwet'en territory, the Site C boondoggle that remains the subject of First Nations legal challenges, and the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX). During the campaign, Horgan criticized anti-pipeline protesters as “disruptive” (the irony being, of course, that disruption is the point). This from a premier who initially came to power after the 2017 campaign in which he promised to use “every tool in the toolbox” to stop TMX.
Elections, luckily, are only one tool in the toolbox for activists who want to make a better world. Whether the BC NDP government, with its new majority mandate in hand, takes meaningful action on housing and the environment will depend on the ability of organizers and movements to push the government beyond its centrist comfort zone.
The BC NDP must remain cognizant that a further renewal of their majority mandate depends on their ability to enact progressive policy to combat climate change, to respect Indigenous sovereignty, and to create genuinely affordable housing for all British Columbians. With Sonia Furstenau re-elected in her seat, the Greens will be able to amplify the popular demand to end fossil fuel subsidies. If the NDP stays too close to the centre, they risk losing a part of their traditional base, including long-time organizers in some regions of the province, to the Greens.
A majority government for the NDP means no more excuses. They will be responsible for each success and failure of government over the next four years. It’s up to the left and this province’s social movements to push hard and to build power from the bottom up.
That’s one reason we’ve launched The Thorn: to build a platform that will enable more truly progressive voices to be heard and to help push decision-makers to do the right thing. We cannot be more excited to work with you on this collective effort.
We’ll be back with a regular edition of The Thorn on Thursdays in a few days! In the meantime, check out these upcoming events that may be of interest to you.
Upcoming Events: What’s coming up on the political and cultural radar
SFU Vancouver’s Lunch ‘n’ Learn is Back!
Tuesday, October 27 - Tuesday, October 27, 2020 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PDT
Join SFU Vancouver and SFU Urban Studies for a discussion with Seth Klein about his new book, A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency
TICKETS: https://www.sfu.ca/sfu-community/events.html/#!view/event/event_id/15575
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
October 28, 2020 - November 8, 2020
http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com
Live stream programming will be available during the festival from its website.
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Toward Liberation: Evolving Beyond 21st Century Capitalism
Friday, November 6, 2020 3:00 PM (PST)
Feminists Deliver is here to inspire transformative individual, relational, community, and societal interventions. Join us on Friday, November 6 to collaborate and aspire Toward Liberation: Evolving Beyond 21st Century Capitalism.
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Yanis Varoufakis Meets Owen Jones
Sat, 7 November 2020, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm GMT
The global crisis of COVID-19 presents an opportunity for a radical rethink of Britain as we know it. Join two icons of the Left as they imagine a future for progressive politics.
https://howtoacademy.com/events/yanis-varoufakis-meets-owen-jones/
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Mike Davis on the US Presidential Election and the Left
Wednesday, November, 11 2020 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Hosted by the Ralph Miliband Programme at the LSE
What do the results tell us about the changing bases of voting behaviour and what do they mean for the left in the US and beyond? Mike Davis is an historian, political activist, urban theorist, and writer. He is known for his investigations of power and social class in his native Southern California.
https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2020/11/202011111830/usa
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CCPA fundraiser
November 18, 2020 from 12 - 1:30pm. BC Office Fundraiser with Faiza Shaheen
Mapping an Equitable World in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/bc/events/bc-office-fundraiser-faiza-shaheen
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Thinking While Black:
November 25, 2020, 3:00 PM
Join Ibram X. Kendi, National Book award-winning historian and author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Jesmyn Ward, MacArthur Genius and two-time National Book Award winner, in conversation as part of the “Thinking While Black” series. This virtual event is hosted by the Phil Lind Initiative at UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.