For Immediate Release ö Friday, May 11, 2001
Candidates Answers To Wilderness Committee Environmental Poll Contain A Few Surprises!
"The results of our thirteen-question environmental poll to the candidates have been tallied - and though late returns are still coming in, I'd say we have a reasonably good take on where the top five political parties and many of the individual candidates running in the provincial election stand on some of the key environmental issues facing British Columbians. There were a few surprises," said Wilderness Committee campaign director Joe Foy.
Some surprises from the Wilderness Committee's candidate poll·
BC Liberal Party: None of the BC Liberal Party candidates answered our poll. Not a single one out of the 79 running for office. Instead, the BC Liberals sent us a "Party Line" response to our questions (even though we didn't ask for one). The BC Liberal Party Line did not answer yes or no to any of our questions, as we had asked all respondents to do - instead they gave longer answers which Wilderness Committee staff had to assign yes or no to as best as we were able. "We were surprised and dismayed not to be able to learn where individual BC Liberal candidates stand on environmental issues," said Foy. The biggest surprise from the BC Liberals though, came in their Party Line answer to question # 7 ·would you support a ban on raw log exports? Their answer: The BC Liberals oppose raw log exports. "This response from the BC Liberal Party really surprised us given the BC Liberals were recipients of donations from major timber companies who favour raw log exports as a quick profit generator," said Foy. "If the BC Liberals form the next provincial government (and the polls say this is as close to certain as you can get) and they actually act to ban raw log exports it would be a major policy change for BC - and in our opinion a very good change - saving many woodworker jobs in the long run," said Foy. Foy wasn't as impressed by other aspects of the BC Liberal Party Line response to the Wilderness Committee's environmental poll. The BC Liberals support the so-called Working Forest Legislation, which would give greater control of the public forests to the large timber companies. The BC Liberals would reinstate the grizzly bear trophy hunt and would not ban logging in community drinking supply areas.
The Green Party of BC: Even though they are not running a full slate of candidates (only 72 Green candidates are running so far) the Greens have the highest candidate response rate to our questions. 39 Green candidates have responded to date. The Green Party of BC has not given us a Party Line response (we didn't ask for one). Of all the parties who have sent in individual candidate responses, the Green candidates are the most in agreement with each other - at least 95% agreement on every question. "I guess we shouldn't have been surprised about the widespread agreement amongst Green candidates over environmental issues," said Foy. And not surprising at all was the favorable response Foy gave to the Green candidates' answers to the Wilderness Committee's 13 environmental questions. Greens would ban grizzly hunting, raw log exports and logging in drinking-water-supply-areas. Greens would protect the Elaho Valley and Stoltmann Wilderness, enact a provincial endangered species act and keep the public forest in public hands by opposing so called Working forest Legislation.
The BC New Democratic Party: Out of a full slate of 79 candidates - 23 NDP candidates have answered the Wilderness Committee's 13 question environmental poll - which means the NDP is tied with the Marijuana Party for second best response rate - lower than the Greens but better than the Unity or Liberal Parties. The NDP also sent us a Party Line response (even though we didn't ask for one). The NDP Party Line did not give yes or no answers to our questions - even though we had asked all respondents to do so. Hence, Wilderness Committee staff had to assign yes or no to the NDP's Party Line answers, as best as we were able. The NDP was the only party where we could compare the Party Line response to the combined responses of individual candidates - and, though some NDP candidates simply followed the Party Line - many did not. While the NDP Party Line did not favour a ban on raw log exports or clearcut logging, many NDP candidates do favour a ban. The NDP Party Line does not favour redistributing 50% of BC's forest tenure to local communities and small scale logging - but many of the NDP candidates who responded do support redistribution. "We were surprised to see that many individual NDP candidate's responses were more favorable to conservation and environmental protection than were the NDP Party Line responses," said Foy. In general Foy was pleased with the NDP's strong stand on keeping the three-year ban on grizzly hunting and commitment to increase BC's protected areas to more than 12% of the province.
The BC Unity Party: Of the parties we polled, the Unity Party are running the smallest slate of candidates (56 candidates) and they had the second lowest candidate response to the Wilderness Committee's environmental poll (16 candidates). The Unity Party did not send us a Party Line (we didn't ask for one). Not-with-standing their low response rate, the Unity Party did provide some surprises. One surprise is their name - the Unity Party - because Unity Party candidates showed the least unity amongst themselves over answers to our questions as compared to the other parties who sent in candidate responses. There are some significant splits between Unity candidates over whether or not to ban open net salmon farms, whether or not to designate over 12% of BC as protected area, whether or not to continue the ban on grizzly bear hunting, whether or not to preserve the Elaho and Stoltmann Wilderness - and whether or not to enact strong endangered species legislation - with about half of the Unity candidates falling on either side of these issues. Another surprise was that a significant percentage of Unity Party candidates consistently gave very favorable responses to conservation and environmental protection. "This surprised us given their leader's strong support for resource-based-industries like logging and mining and his now famous comments about not turning BC into one big park where we all would have to be park rangers or hamburger flippers," said Foy. A strong majority of Unity Party candidates who responded to the Wilderness Committee poll support a ban of raw log exports and on logging in drinking-water-supply areas - which Foy was pleased to see.
The BC Marijuana Party: Out of a full slate of 79 candidates, 23 responded to our environmental poll - which means that the Marijuana Party is tied with the NDP for second best response rate. The Marijuana Party did not send us a Party Line response (we didn't ask for one). "There seems to be quite a bit of agreement on environmental issues amongst the Marijuana Party candidates that responded to our poll," said Foy. "And in general, Marijuana Party candidates gave very favorable responses to conservation and environmental protection questions," said Foy. A majority of Marijuana Party candidates support banning clearcut logging and raw log exports. A majority support enacting strong endangered species legislation and lowering the rate of logging to a sustainable level. "If there were any surprises in the Marijuana Party's responses, I'd say they were pleasant surprises," said Foy.
Wilderness Committee staff will continue to post the results on our environment poll as they continue to come in from the candidates.
"We encourage all our members, and indeed all British Columbians who are eligible to vote - to weigh the information contained in our environmental poll results - then get out there and VOTE on May 16!" said Foy.
See the full poll results - including individual candidate, consolidated and Party Line responses.
For more information contact:
Joe Foy - Cell tel: (604) 880-2580
Sue Fox - WCWC offices (604) 683-8220