Commentary
The extremely closely contested provincial election in British Columbia illustrates both the rise of conservatism and the peculiar tenacity of the leftist New Democratic Party in B.C.
The trend to the responsible right is general in the Western world and is the appropriate response to the wokeness, fiscal irresponsibility, muddled view of the collective, and individual national interest of the Western nations. It denotes an entirely understandable rising boredom with the platitudes of supposedly post-national human brotherhood, as well as the exaggerated claims and extremist techniques of environmental extremism.
But B.C.’s imperishable susceptibility to the call of a leftist party has a source that is a little harder to identify. Because it is such a beautiful place, and Vancouver and some other cities are wedged picturesquely between the ocean and the mountains—a majestic situation reminiscent of Naples, Sydney, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and other magnificent port cities—there is perhaps a larger than-is-justified weakness for taking seriously overzealous claims about what it takes to protect the province’s natural beauty. It may have something to do with the fact that the post-Cold War militancy of the environmental movement is traceable to its effective takeover from authentic conservationists by the militant international left, defeated in the Cold War but tactically regrouped with great skill of improvisation to attack capitalism from the new angle of ecology in the name of defending the planet….