John Horgan and Andrew Weaver are two politicians who should be focused on one thing: how to beat Christy Clark's governing Liberals in a looming election.
But, to Clark's undoubted delight, they're both fighting internal battles instead.
Horgan, leader of the B.C. NDP, is dealing with a party faction that essentially wants to shut down Canada's oil-and-gas industry. The environmental LEAP Manifesto - which seeks to curb fossil-fuel combustion to slow climate change - was accepted for consideration by delegates to the party's federal convention last spring.
Horgan said he doesn't support the manifesto and it will not be part of the provincial NDP's campaign platform in the May 2017 election. It's easy to understand why he would say that.
Clark has already dubbed Horgan and company as "the forces of no," who would shut down resource extraction and brutalize the B.C. economy if they get elected. Horgan fires back that the manifesto (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) is a federal thing that doesn't apply to the provincial party. Unfortunately, the provincial and federal parties are constitutionally joined. Watch for Clark to hammer away at this while Horgan squirms.
Andrew Weaver, the leader of the B.C. Green Party, is also in an uncomfortable position after the federal Greens endorsed the BDS movement against Israel on the weekend. The Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement seeks to isolate and economically punish Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.
"BDS is a politically motivated movement that damages any attempt at peace in the Middle East by assigning blame to one party," Weaver said. "It risks increasing tension and does not represent a responsible or thoughtful approach to a difficult international issue."
Federal Green Leader Elizabeth May also opposes the BDS movement and said she might resign over the party's position. The loss of the popular May would be a devastating blow to the federal party. And the BDS controversy threatens to trip up Weaver at a time when he's hoping to make a provincial breakthrough in the election.
These distractions come at a time when Clark's Liberals are vulnerable on many fronts. Housing prices have soared beyond the reach of working people in Metro Vancouver, a crisis that won't be solved by Clark's surprise flip-flop tax on foreign buyers. Clark's promised trillion-dollar, liquefied-natural-gas bonanza has failed to materialize.
Weaver and Horgan should be locked in on these issues, not dealing with internal squabbles.
And here's one more: the appalling epidemic of opioid-drug overdoses that's killing hundreds of British Columbians. Why the NDP and the Greens aren't pushing harder on that one is bizarre.
Somewhere, Clark is smiling.
