'Yes' can be a bad word too

Scolding BC's 'Forces of No,' Our Premier Crassly Divides Us

When it comes to LNG, her story is us against them. But in the Skeena, a powerful counter-narrative is rising.

By Ian Gill, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca

Our premier actually said something true last week.

''The world is being divided into two,'' Christy Clark told reporters in Vancouver on the heels of an historic Salmon Nation Summit in Prince Rupert. There, a powerful coalition of First Nations leaders, scientists, citizens, elected officials, sport and commercial fishermen and environmentalists declared Lelu Island, at the mouth of the Skeena River, off limits to industrial development.

Our premier's reaction was to label them ''the forces of no.''

Remember Bill Bennett, the Social Credit premier who labelled his critics ''bad British Columbians?'' Remember Glen Clark, the NDP premier who called forest activists in the Great Bear Rainforest ''enemies of B.C.'' for daring to question NDP forest practices? Now we have a Liberal premier who thinks it's OK to publicly discount people with dissenting views. Clark went out of her way to demonize a whole segment of her constituents, stigmatizing their beliefs, their passions, their genuine concerns, and their heartfelt vision for a prosperous future for their families, as nothing more than NIMBYism. 

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/02/06/Forces-No-Premier-Divides-Us/