4 - Sunday, September 16, 1890 - Noh Shore News Environment NDP'’s anti-nuke policy gave Bob Rae his winning edge THE NDP sweep on Ontario was something that not too many people predicted. I happened to be one of them. I predicted 68 seats, which was two above what they needed for an absolute majority. They got 74. IJ collected several hundred bucks from my astonish- ed Eastern Canadian colleagues. The reason [ was able to predict the outcome was because J have been following the polls concern- ing the environment. The percentage of the popula- tion thal puts environment at the very top of its fist of priorities has been surging steadily, while tradi- tional concerns like unemployment and taxes have fallen, and issues like free trade have sunk into the background. It isn’t just a matter of polls, by the way. As a writer and broad- caster who focuses on the en- vironment, I talk to people about the subject nearly every day. They are frustrated. And afraid. And they are not ignorant any longer. There was a lot of talk during the course of the Ontario provin- cial election about the electorate being volatile, grumpy and other- wise unpredictable. Everything from the failure of Meech Lake to the uprising at Oka, the GST and the oncoming recession was blam- ed, All this talk about cranky voters overlooks the fact that, rather than being volatile, the voters have in fact become quite consis- tent. As poll after poll shows, they are concerned about the en- vironment. And, by the way, they will not lose interest in it — simply because the environmental crisis is worsening, not going away. How, in the age of mass com- munications, can the public fail te be aware of this fact? The poor federal Tories were betting that once a recession sets in, and people start worrying more about jobs, the *‘en- vironmental fad'* would quickly fade away. It was for this reason that they dared to stall former environment minister Lucien Bouchard’s grand plan for saving the Canadian eco-system, Once Bouchard realized his fellow cabinet ministers, the prime minister, and the mandarins rep- tesenting all the federal depart- ments that would have had to ac- tually let go of some power in order to make Bouchard’s eco- vision work, he threw in the towel and went back to his first love: separatism. The Tories are now dead in the water with no environmental plat- Ballard completes financing deal NORTH Vancouver's Ballard Bat- tery Systems Corp. has completed the equity financing of $2.5 mil- lion to enable the company to ex- ecute a $30-million contract to build lithium sulphur-dioxide bat- teries for the United States Army. The funds will be used to ex- pand its North Shore facilities and to finance its business growth. Ballard president Avraham Elarar said, ‘‘The equity financing by these highly sophisticated and knowledgeable investors is an ad- ded vote of confidence in the abil- ity of the company to emerge as a major player in the primary Li/ SO2 batteries field in 1991." The U.S. Army has also placed an additional $1.2 million order with Bailard for the supply of the lithium sulphur-dioxide batteries in 1991. The international group of in- vestors, from the U.S., Switzerland and Canada, that par- ticipated in the financing is the same group of investors that pro- vided financing to the parent company, Ballard Power Systems in July 1989. The five-year deal Ballard struck with the U.S. Army earlier this year was a major coup for the North Vancouver company, mak- ing it the third largest supplier of the batteries to the U.S. Army. Ballard develops and manufac- tures lithium sulphur-dioxide bat- teries for portable military field communication and electronic equipment for the U.S. and Ca- nadian military. ELEBRATION OF 10 YEARS OF YOUR PATRONAGE WE ARE HAVING OUR BIGGEST SALE EVER! SELECTION & PRICES BETTER THAN ANY WAREHOUSE SALE > OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Bob Hunter ECOLOGIC form at all, no constitutional package, a civil war on their hands, and no hope of going anywhere in the next election. But if anything is going to kill them — as it killed David Peter- son’s Liberals in Ontario — it is that first failure, the lack of any environmental action at all. My thesis is that this was the third provincial election in On- tario where the environmental vote was a deciding factor. By that, | certainly don’t mean a vote for the Greens. The important thing to understand about the green vote is that in Canada it does not have a political home. That is, no party has successfully seized it, which is the reason all parties can try. In 1985, a PCB spill occurred near Kenora in the middle of a provincial election. The hapless Noiths fore m@mazDa| 700 Marine Drive, North Vancouver Tory environment minister of the day said: “Who cares except the rats?"" The Liberals, by contrast, were coming on strong about the en- vironment, promising, among other things, to stop the construc- tion of any more nuclear reactors. The Liberals got in that yeer with a minority. They then set to work initiating a rather ambitious environmental clean-up program that tackled everything from acid rain to polluted fakes. When they went to the voters after all this early Murry of activi- ty, they won a handsome majori- ty. Since then, thanks to brave ef- forts of a lonely environment minister named Jim Bradley, who had to buck cabinet apathy, vacillating by the premier, and bureaucratic hostility all the way, the Liberals have in fact methodi- cally constructed the infrastructure of the most progressive en- vironmental program in Canada. Alas, none of it had vet taken effect. The lakes are still visibly polluted. Nobody can swim in them. The urban air, while marginally better, still stinks. No- body could see or smell! or taste any improvement. Perhaps worst of all, the Grits had changed their mind about nu- clear power, coming out 100 per cent in favor of it. The NDP, this time around, took up the sacred task of oppos- ing nukes. At the same time, the provincial leader, Bob Rae, actu- ally went up to the Temagami wilderness area last summer and got himself arrested protesting the Ms ITS killed Ontario Liberals destruction of old-growth trees. He took a fair amount of flack from the logging unions for that, but stuck to his guns. Meanwhile, the Peterson Liberals played cute Machiavcilian tricks, pitting the natives azainst the eco-freaks, deflecting media criticism, but actually leaving 80 per cent of Temagami still vulnerable to logg- ing. The Grits may have saved a few votes in Northern ridings, but they utterly alienated the Yuppie hordes in Toronto, who have all turned into treehuggers and bun- nylovers over the past few years. Is there a lesson here for British Columbia? You bet! Do You Know Your Options In This M : 7, SUE DANIEL President’s Gold Award . Personalized Consultation Real Estate & Mortgage Finance Office 985-8231 (24 hrs.) MAZDA 626 AUTO TRANSMISSION ON SELECT MODELS OR EQUIVALENT *1500. DISCOUNT ON PURCHASE DLe7B47 987-4458