Marc Emery running again

Posted August 27, 2008 by Sacha Peter - Link
Category: By-Election, Other Parties

Thanks to BJ again for pointing out that Marc Emery, marijuana king of BC, is running for Vancouver-Fairview (and the Vancouver Mayor’s race).

His platform is surprisingly sharp, and overlaps the traditional left-wing/right-wing territory. An example is the following from his platform:

- BC Place would be demolished and sold to provide high-density housing. BC Place is in use usually fewer than 5 days a month.

- The Whitecaps Soccer Stadium on the railroad lands by Canada Place would get a green light to proceed. This is an outstanding private money project to put a multi-use sports stadium on the waterfront. Currently this project is not happening because of pressure for these same lands by the Port of Vancouver

…

- The cost of gasoline, exacerbated by the BC Liberal Carbon Tax and provincial gasoline taxes, rises while this resource is produced within Canada. You and I pay the same price for gasoline as if it were imported from the Middle East or Venezuela. Yet in Venezuela, the cost of gasoline is 16 cents Canadian a liter vs. $1.35 for a liter of the same gasoline in Vancouver. In both cases the gasoline is domestically produced, but the exorbitant cost to the citizen in Vancouver is due to rapacious taxation. Even Canadian gasoline sold in the United States is $1 a liter, and they import it, of course. Government is screwing us.

I notice he avoids using the catchphrases “affordable housing” and he discusses the price of gasoline in terms that are not associated with the traditional “the oil companies are raping us” terms.

The NDP would be wise to pay attention to the points of his platform - some of Marc Emery’s points makes a lot more sense than what the NDP are currently standing for.