Mark Jaccard bitch slaps Carole James!
Posted on April 10th, 2008 in environment, links, politics, society |
Mark Jaccard, leading climate change advisor to the Premier, wrote an oped in the Sun today, where he defended the government’s carbon tax policy - a policy that he has personally pushed for years.
It gets fun though when he responds to Carole James’ position against the tax:
Third, opposition politicians may mislead the public for their own political ends. Carole James, leader of the B.C. New Democratic Party, wrote in The Sun last week that the carbon tax is unfair and that she would exempt from the tax any person or industry complaining loudly enough, replacing the tax with ineffective subsidies. This saddens me. An honest politician would be telling British Columbians that a carbon tax is essential. Some people will have higher costs no matter where they live and to pretend that one can design a tax so that everyone is treated identically is disingenuous. Our carbon-funded tax cuts will benefit low-income British Columbians, even those living in colder regions.
Climate policy experts told B.C.’s NDP government throughout the 1990s that a carbon tax was essential to reduce emissions. During this time, social democratic governments in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom took the honest and courageous move of implementing carbon taxes. Our NDP government instead used taxpayers’ money to provide subsidies and information programs that had no effect on emissions — just what they were told would happen.
Given these obstacles to politicians doing the right thing, my colleagues at the Global Energy Assessment were surprised by B.C.’s carbon tax — the first in North America. They wanted to know more about our “honest and courageous” political leaders. So I told them about Gordon Campbell, Carole Taylor and Barry Penner. I stayed quiet about Carole James.
So, basically, he says:
We told you what to do in the 90’s, you didn’t listen to us, now you are in opposition, so… STFU!
Rock on Jaccard!
(Please note, that I am in no way a BC Liberal. It’s just, how can you not want to poke the ineffective NDP when they are down and seemingly never going to get back on their feet?!)
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7 Responses
Paul Hillson: Introducing “Bitch Slap” into the BC political lexicon since 2008.
LOL you know it Dave. It’s all part of my “brand” ;)
Great points Paul, and awesome write-up. I did a review of Jaccard’s recent lecture where he explained why he advocated for COMPULSORY REGULATORY POLICY (if it comes in the form of a carbon tax, then awesome, but he did not actually advocate for the carbon tax himself — see my notes).
On a side note, Mark Jaccard has been heavily criticized even as a person, which I find absolutely insulting. As scholars and academics, we are bound to be probed and asked tough questions, but the personal integrity of a scholar should not be attacked because of political stances. When I read a recent series on The Tyee, I found a lot of commenters attacking Jaccard as a person and not his research. This saddens me. Has the level of discourse sunk so low?
I know Mark and some of his former students are close friends of mine, so I am well aware of the fact that he is a rigorous scholar and social scientist, despite what other people might want to say. And I am glad that he is being listened to. I know at least three other professors (all of them at UBC) whose opinions should be listened to, as well.
Yes, the level of discourse has sunk so low thanks to the likes of Fox News and the “National Post” being allowed to spew their poison. Fascism is fighting for dominance and takes no prisoners.
Paul, your attitude towards democracy, kick a party when they’re in Opposition, is about what I would expect from a teenage Liberal sycophant who believes that winning elections isn’t the most important thing, it’s the only thing.
Here is the text of my letter to the Vancouver Province in response to Jaccard’s latest “bitch slap”.
I believe that academic freedom and tenure are important institutions in liberal, pluralistic democracies that promote the discovery and dissemination of knowledge. I also believe it’s a good thing when academics involve themselves in democratic politics and public administration, since they can bring a very high level of expertise to the business of government.
But when intellectuals accept patronage contracts and become partisan hacks for the governing party of the day, writing cheesy and insincere op-ed pieces [see Vancouver Sun, March 28, 2008] attacking the opposition party, falsely accusing them of dishonesty for not obsequiously praising the particular policies that academic is involved in administering and promoting for the governing party, something has gone wrong.
What has gone wrong is that academic freedom and tenure and the accompanying presumption that professors are indeed experts who really do know what they are talking about has been abused. It’s become a coin for the holder of the professorial chair to exploit for their own pecuniary gain, debasing that coin in the process.
I respect Mark Jaccard as an energy economist, one who has wisely and pointedly reminded everyone that fossil fuels aren’t going away anytime soon. If Professor Jaccard believes he can do useful public policy work as a close-in protégé of Premier Gordon M. Campbell, that’s his call to make.
However, as a Canadian and as a taxpayer, some of whose taxes support Simon Fraser University and its School of Resource and Environmental Management studies, I don’t appreciate Jaccard’s silly and threadbare pretense to being non-partisan in his laughable little media pieces attacking Carole James and the NDP. If Jaccard want’s to play the game of party politics full-on, fine. Let him do so honestly and straightforwardly, by seeking a BC Liberal nomination so that everyone will know what his game is.
I understand there’s a vacancy for a “star” Liberal candidate in Carole Taylor’s riding, another very prominent person who just assumed that her enormous talents would be a useful addition to the Campbell team, but who has since changed her mind.
@ Rod. You are simply laughable. I’ve already written a response to your allegations that I am a BC Liberal partisan on another post.
The Province printed the letter.