Bob Jackson: Time to educate and mobilize, stand together, and to work hard

The following is re-posted from Headwinds, a blog written by the PSAC Alliance Executive Committee - the National President, National Executive Vice-President and seven Regional Executive Vice-Presidents. Read more of their thoughts on the issues that affect PSAC members and all Canadians at aec-cea.ca and watch for more from Bob - we plan to make this a regular feature here at the regional website.

"Never a dull moment in BC politics."

Truer words have never been spoken - this time by Adrian Dix, leader of the BC NDP, in his post-election speech to supporters on Tuesday night.

Along with just about everyone else in the province I was left almost speechless by the outcome of our provincial election, as the BC Liberals defied the pollsters and the pundits and were re-elected.  

 Much has been written (and much will be written) about the election. How did the polls get it so wrong? What can we do about low voter engagement? Where did the BC NDP go wrong?

But the fact remains - British Columbians are faced with four more years of a majority Liberal government.

Warren Bell, of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, put it best when he wrote.

We now have a return to the status quo ante in BC - a majority Liberal government that cannot be stopped, slowed down, or modified in its pursuit of a public policy agenda that is a "carbon" copy (and I use the phrase advisedly) of the Stephen Harper approach to governance.

Make no mistake, there's a pipeline directly from the Premier's Office in Victoria to the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa.

Just like the federal Conservatives, the Liberals ran a relentlessly negative campaign of seemingly endless radio and TV ads, including a $1,000,000 pre-election advertising blitz, led by a shadowy group calling themselves the Concerned Citizens for BC.

And, taking a page out of the Economic Action Plan playbook, the Liberals spent millions on self-serving BC Jobs Plan advertising.

Stephen Harper's government will continue to exert an influence in Victoria, and will no doubt be pushing harder for the kind of anti-worker, anti-public services, anti-environment, anti-everything policies we've come to expect from Ottawa.

But what can people who care about social and environmental justice do here in BC?

Well, there's only one thing to do: it's what we've always done - educate and mobilize, stand together, and work hard - harder than we've ever worked - to push our agenda forward.

I'm confident that change is coming - it just might take a bit longer than we thought.