FORSETH – Is Premier David Eby calling me an extremist?
(Image: BC Govt)
AM I AN EXTREMIST … do I support an extremist party?
I never thought so, but given the comments of B.C. Premier David Eby this week, perhaps I need to rethink that.
In a Vancouver Sun story written by Vaughn Palmer (David Eby shifting focus to soaring B.C. Conservatives as election nears), Eby made several astonishing statements, or should I say, claims.
First up … “I have flagged repeatedly my concern about the growth of the extremist Conservative Party in B.C.”
Given that the GROWTH of the party, or any political party for that matter, comes from individuals supporting it, by extension Eby has called me, and others, extremists.
Second … “poll is an important reminder certainly for anyone who has been quick to dismiss the BC Conservative Party as an extremist party that will not find traction in our province.”
It seems to me, that the ONLY person who has been dismissing the Conservative Party of BC, has been the BC United (formerly BC Liberals) party leader Kevin Falcon. Over and over again he has dissed the party and leader John Rustad, saying polling showing the Conservative ahead of his party has been little more than a flash in the pan and that his party is poised to make a comeback.
Given we are now less than seven months from the next election, and polling has showed BC United behind the Conservatives for just as many months, he’d better get a move on.
But back to Eby … “I look forward to engaging with Mr. Rustad on his far-right extremist ideas, his Republican culture war ideology he’s trying to bring to British Columbians.”
Far-right extremist ideas? Culture war ideology? Holy Smokes Batman!
Given his candidates will also be engaging with B.C.’s Conservative candidates, I guess he is also saying that they (Conservative BC candidates) have extremist ideas and will be bringing culture war ideology to our province.
Let me take that to a local level, here in the Kamloops-North Thompson region.
The Conservative candidate in the riding of Kamloops Centre will be Dennis Giesbrecht, who ran for the Party in the 2020 provincial election.
In the Kamloops-North Thompson riding the party’s candidate will be twice elected, and current, mayor of Barriere, Ward Stamer.
I think you would have to go far to find anyone that would use those words, or those terms, to describe either of these individuals.
Until recently, it seemed to me that the other only party, and party leader, that should have been concerned about the rise of the Conservative Party of BC would have been Kevin Falcon and BC United.
Given the preposterous statements of B.C. NDP Premier David Eby this week, perhaps he, too, is now beginning to be concerned.
GOOD … because he should be!
Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40 years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election. He was involved in the BC Liberal leadership campaign and is now a member of the BC Conservative Party.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
My parents both grew up in “The Dirty 30s” in Saskatchewan. Historical temperature records and their personal recollections both confirm that it was significantly hotter during that period than it is now. It was not carbon dioxide driving temperatures then and it certainly is not now either.
I highly recommend you search online for “Climate the Movie” and invest some time in viewing it. It probably won’t come up on Bing or Google since their algorithms always suppress inconvenient truths, so give DuckDuckGo a whirl.
As Upton Sinclair famously observed, “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on him not understanding it”.
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Well you do have some radically bad ideas, nothing new really just stuff that “reason” has rejected for long. However a push back to Eby’s own set of “unreasoned” positions also do need a strong push back. So there you go the sad state of politics goes on.
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First off, outstanding rebuttal Rob Madsen. Secondly, Mr Forseth, your leader is a climate denialist, yes now he conveniently claims he believes in climate change because only an extremist would believe otherwise as this same leader, Mr Rustad, had been promoting only months prior to him becoming leader of this vacuous party.
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For anyone to judge whether or not you, your party and candidates represent extreme views will require you to provide your party’s platform, agenda, and policy statements. Let’s start with climate change, abortion, and LGBTQ issues. What is the Conservative position on these matters? Many who disagree with these positions might find them to be “extreme.”
For example, I find a position that “climate change is not a crisis” to be extreme.
It would be helpful for everyone to define and discuss extremism for what it is, and what it is not before adopting its use in our political discourse.
I’ve read a number of definitions online, some from academic papers. A common definition of “extreme” is beliefs and political parties which most people consider unreasonable and unacceptable.
Extremism, like many words tossed around today, have different meanings for different people. In this situation described by the author, Mr. Eby is practicing political rhetoric without pinning down what he means. The same is happening everywhere in Canada.
It’s basically a very divisive, rhetoric-filled political culture right now, all over the country.
As an example, fighting for certain rights is considered by some to be engaging in a “culture war.” I find this discourse toxic and offensive.
I look forward to a future where people and politicians can engage in actual debate and dialogue without “narratives” “sound bites” and made up slogans designed to divide. Can we get back to civility, logic, evidence and empathy in political discourse please?
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Never once I bet have either of you attended a meet and greet to actually speak to Mr Rustad nor hear what our party’s message truly is. Never have I EVER heard him say climate change is t real. What I have heard is that our little 1.3% pollution isn’t the main cause of our demise. That we CANT change the world alone and that thinking putting us in the poor house will do so is proposterus and he doesn’t support the tax burden. As for LGTBQ issues, when it comes to our children, a parent needs to be involved in their lives. It a school or government taking the place of a parent. To me and many others that sounds like GOOD parenting. As for culture war!!!!! REALLY? Look at the mix of our party! We are made up of British Columbians from all walks and cultures. Sounds to me like your alil on the EXTREME aside when it comes to false accusations
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He has said climate change is real but not a crisis.
That’s the problem. The climate is changing, humans are contributing and we need to treat it as a crisis or we won’t be able to adapt to the changes.
Climate scientists generally agree with this assessment, but those with a political agenda are challenging the science. I trust scientists more than politicians on what needs to happen regarding the climate.
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