Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Premier-Designate Christy Clark's hard right advisor Gwyn Morgan bashes enviros, unions, even Cancer Society!

Arch-Conservative Gwyn Morgan is Christy Clark's transition team advisor
Raid - kills bugs dead - and causes cancer? Naah, says Morgan,
don't believe the Canadian Cancer Society

Meet Christy Clark's Hard Right Advisor

Basher of enviros and unions, Gwyn Morgan blamed immigrants for crime. What does he like? US health care.

Bill Tieleman's 24 hours/The Tyee column

Tuesday March 8,  2011

By Bill Tieleman

"It is my earnest submission that signing the Kyoto Protocol would go down in history as one of the most damaging international agreements ever signed by a Canadian prime minister."

- Gwyn Morgan, Christy Clark transition team advisor, whacking Jean Chretien

Premier-designate Christy Clark says she is an "outsider" bringing "change" to the BC Liberal Party as its new leader.

And Clark claims the BC Liberal government "has been a leader in climate action" while under her new leadership it will promote "a cleaner environment for everyone."

But watch out if Clark's "change" is strongly influenced by her top transition team advisor Gwyn Morgan!

Because Morgan is a right-wing ideologue who bashes environmentalists, unions, federal Liberals and immigrants in a way that makes outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell seem like a pinko.

Morgan's controversial views even include ripping the Canadian Cancer Society for supporting a ban on carcinogenic insecticides and weed killers, saying the society was supporting "junk science," as were any "scientifically illiterate municipal councilors" who agreed with it.

After all, says Morgan: "The medical evidence is scant."

Why trust the Canadian Cancer Society when we can put our faith in Raid and Roundup? Spray on, Gwyn!

Morgan is also a defender of "Frankenfoods" -- genetically modified (GM) foods that some European countries have banned, despite Morgan saying there are "no credible studies showing negative impacts."

The green shiv

The former CEO of natural gas giant EnCana, Morgan helped fund a nasty third party advertising campaign eviscerating former Liberal leader Stephane Dion's "Green Shift" carbon tax plan in the 2008 federal election with a $20,000 donation to the right-wing National Citizens Coalition.

Ironically, the BC Liberal Party under Campbell brought in North America's only carbon tax -- which Clark supports. And Dion's leadership campaign was masterminded by Mark Marissen, Clark's now ex-husband, who helped guide her own BC Liberal Party win.

Morgan and his wife Pat Trottier also personally gave $1 million to the right-wing Fraser Institute's Foundation and he sits on the institute's board of directors.

That may explain his ardent opposition to anything mildly left of the libertarian right. For example, Morgan's views on the NDP:

"The New Democratic Party offers a typical socialist agenda. Tax and spend, subsidize unionized industry and make big business 'pay' -- the kind of policies that drove Ontario and British Columbia to the brink of economic ruin," Morgan wrote in a 2008 Globe and Mail column.

Never mind that the average economic growth during the 1990s when B.C. was under the "socialist" rule of NDP governments was three per cent compared to the two per cent growth achieved by the Gordon Campbell BC Liberals. Or that ex-NDP premier Glen Clark is now a senior vice-president to Jim Pattison, B.C.'s top business owner.

Ardent fan of Harper

Unsurprisingly, Morgan is a huge supporter of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- a former National Citizens Coalition president.

Harper attempted in 2006 to appoint Morgan as chair of a federal commission to oversee public appointments.

That move was blocked by opposition parties after details of a Fraser Institute speech he gave in Dec. 2005 came out, in which Morgan blamed immigrants who "come from countries where the culture is dominated by violence and lawlessness" for rising Canadian crime rates, praised the private U.S. health care model and attacked unions for negatively affecting businesses.

Morgan and Trottier are also involved in former Reform Party leader Preston Manning's right-wing Manning Centre for Building Democracy, Morgan on the board of directors, Trottier the council of advisors. The Manning Centre patrons include Mike Harris, Gary Filmon and Ralph Klein -- the former Conservative Party premiers of Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta respectively, as well as ex-Reform strategists Tom Flanagan and Rick Anderson.

Cold shoulder for Grits?

All of this is well and good -- but Clark's federal Liberal friends must be appalled at her taking advice from this most fundamentalist capital "C" Conservative.

After all, Clark is a former aide to federal cabinet minister Doug Young and someone whose potential leadership prompted top Conservatives like John Reynolds to speak out against publicly before the BC Liberal vote Feb. 26.

And it's not like Morgan is soft on federal Liberals.

After the sponsorship scandal, Morgan claimed that the federal Liberal Party was "embroiled in behaviour that is comparable to that of countries at the bottom of the world corruption index."

But on the other hand he praised Stephen Harper, who Morgan said was the victim of "an orchestrated attempt to impugn a Canadian political leader [Harper] whose integrity is beyond reproach and a person who openly honours Christian values, but respects all religions."

Trottier also was involved in an interesting 2008 third-party advertising effort to support Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn win re-election against environmentalist-supported Liberal Briony Penn in Saanich-South Island.

As The Tyee's Andrew MacLeod reported, five different groups registered as third-party advertisers in the election -- but all of them used the office of Conservative lawyer Bruce Hallsor as their address.

Trottier's previously unknown Economic Advisory Council of Saanich was one of them.

"They all wanted to register groups as third party advertisers, so I did that for them," Hallsor said then. "It's the right of every citizen who wants to express their opinion in an election to do so up to the spending limit."

That spending limit of $3,666 for each group allowed them to buy ads supporting Lunn outside his Conservative Party spending limit of $92,000.

Nothing green in sight

Morgan's advisory role to Clark also must be frightening for a coalition of prominent environmental groups who encouraged their supporters to join the BC Liberal Party to influence the leadership vote in favour of the most ecologically minded candidate.

Morgan's hard-edged opposition to the Kyoto Accord, aversion to climate change initiatives and support for pretty much the whole big oil agenda isn't what they were hoping for.

And Clark had already blown away their dreams before the leadership vote when she promised to make reversing the rejection of the Prosperity Mine in northern B.C. over environmental concerns even the Harper Conservatives couldn't ignore the priority for her federal-provincial relations agenda.

Now with Morgan advising her -- and donating $10,000 to her leadership campaign -- don't expect Clark to pay any mind to environmental concerns. He's not only originally a Calgary energy industry boss but also someone who says "we applaud the government for trying to open up the offshore" of B.C. for oil and gas drilling.

Want to keep using cancer-causing insecticides? Hate the Kyoto Accord? Support oil and gas exploration and tanker travel on B.C.'s ecologically sensitive coastline?

Love those federal Conservatives, but only so long as they stay on the Fraser Institute's narrow agenda?

Then Gwyn Morgan is your man. And he's advising B.C.'s new "outsider" Premier Christy Clark on how to run a government.

Change is in the air. Or is that just Raid?


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22 comments:

Anonymous said...

These birds of a feather are metal raptors!

DPL said...

The woman simply doesn't make sense on her picks. Hope she calls an election soon so the gang can get dumped

Ron1 said...

Add Roger Harris of Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines - and a former Liberal MLA - to Christy's transition team and you have a potent force for:

- coastal oil tankers

- the Enbridge pipeline, and

- coastal oil and gas drilling!

More of the BC fiberal's "green" (as in cash) agenda.

Anonymous said...

The woman simply doesn't make sense on her picks. Hope she calls an election soon so the gang can get dumped

and replaced with who?

Adrian Dix?

Skookum1 said...

Another carpetbagger from "outside"...not surprising, but also perturbing.

Bill, the link to Gwyn Morgan at worldenergysource.com yields:

"Server Error in '/wes' Application.
Runtime Error" Tried it a couple of times, it's persistent.

Anonymous said...

"Change is in the air. Or is that just Raid?"

It's a breath of stale Raid.

Outsourced again said...

"DPL said...
The woman simply doesn't make sense on her picks."

Sure, it makes perfect "sense" from the perspective of her back room boys. The BC "Liberals" are for profit, or I should say, for sale. The province is "open" to those who have money.

"Anonymous said...
and replaced with who?
Adrian Dix?"

You bet! Its anyone but Christy... Ask her about BC Rail. Vote for anyone not from that weird bunch they call "liberal". They are plain evil.

But seriously, what gets me are those totally insane "environmentalists". Who is advising them? Who with even a few brain cells would possibly tell their members to join the Liberal Party so they could influence the Liberal race? What possible difference is there between the Falcon clone of disgraced Campbell and Spooky Christy who has all Campbell's back room boys who pulled his strings and got us in the economic mess we are in.

How come the media think the BC Liberal and Conservative federal debt is OK? How come they think Campbell was good/passable Premier and our federal Conservative Finance Minister has done a good job. Who in the right minds, and who is not being paid to say that everything is OK, believes this utter and complete non-sense?

What makes me mad is that these guys think that we believe their non-sense. But what to be done about these wacky environmentalists. Someone has to be able to talk to them about the Liberal Party, but I guess they don't read these blogs. They must be on another planet.

Vote anyone but ....

DPL said...

anon 12:02 mentions Adrian Dix , replacing Ms.Clark. Pretty good choice i would say and a heck of a lot less scary

Anonymous said...

We are reaching a tipping point in this province both as an economic factor and as a state of mind.

We have a Premier Designate who could give Charlie Sheen a run for his money on issues of substance vs hype and just plain sanity.

In order to add some muscle to her mental-cellulite Christy is now recruiting this "enforcer" from the Fraser Institute.

This ultimate madness of personal greed and ego will cause this province to implode before anyone can even get to the political lifeboats via the courts or the ballot box.

We watch the news and scratch our heads at the insanity unfolding now in Libya, WELL ?!

The GREAT SATAN

Anonymous said...

Nice drive by smearing Bill. Nobody can throw sleaze like you can.

e.a.f. said...

Its not that I have anything against bow ties, but the guys outfit, well if that is the wardrobe you do have to question his mental state and C.C.'s also.

If people thought she would be a "change", well she will be, she will go further right than campbell and destroy the B.C. Medical system, etc. and make this the land of the fraser institute.

We can expect the min. wage to be the lowest in Canada with the highest child poverty rate in Canada. By the time C.C. is finished with her "new agenda" winters on the prairies will start to look good as people pack up and leave the province.

Anonymous said...

Satan has figured it out. He's great.

Alan said...

"Anonymous said...
Nice drive by smearing Bill. Nobody can throw sleaze like you can.

10:45 PM PST"

Well, that's a double standard if I ever saw one.

A definition of "smear" is as follows: "To stain or attempt to destroy the reputation of; vilify"

Now Anon accuses Bill of smearing Clark et al, but Bill clearly did not. He, at least, presented facts to prove what he says is true about the Clark bunch. If Bill said something untrue, I'm sure that bunch would sue for defamatory libel which I'm sure they wont because Bill didn't write anything libelous or "sleazy".

That's what gets Anon. Bill uncovered the truth about some crappy people that Anon likes.

But here is the kicker. The hypocrite Anon presents no facts and does a drive by smear of Bill, trying to vilify him. Its Anon who is sleazy.

Bill comes off clean as a whistle and shows us who the Clark bunch really are and how really, really dumb that bunch of so-called environmentalists are who supported Clark and her Campbell back room boys against the Campbell clone, Falcon.

So Anon is guilty of smear by drive by, not Bill. There must be some nasty little place reserved for sleazy people.

Anonymous said...

Gee, it sounds like Mr. Morgan needs to be working for Monsanto! Or does he?

Anonymous said...

anon 12:02 mentions Adrian Dix , replacing Ms.Clark. Pretty good choice i would say and a heck of a lot less scary

Considering Bill was Glen Clark's propaganda person during the time of the FastCats.

Nice work there Bill. Only the NDP could figure that expensive to run ferries would create jobs in a limited market.

Anonymous said...

Satan has figured it out. He's great.

Sure if you like fiction written by a lover of the Totalitarian Trudeau.

Add in comical and you have Satan.

Anonymous said...

GREAT SATAN says:

"This ultimate madness of personal greed and ego will cause this province to implode before anyone can even get to the political lifeboats via the courts or the ballot box."

The courts, you say?
Got a few hundred thousand dollars handy?
With the recent appeal court ruling in the Cambie merchant case, the courts have now made it legal to lie about government funded private for-profit mega-projects (P3's) - REGARDLESS of the consequences, or the rejected less harmful alternatives. Few citizens have the courage or resources to challenge the systematic errosion of our rights and livelihoods.

Seems the only thing that matters is millions steadily flowing to the favoured few, by hook or by crook.
The hell with the rest of us!

People marched in the streets in Libya because they had nothing more to lose. We better wake up fast. This corrupt bunch led by the ultimate insider Christy Palin will gamble away our rights - our water - our farmland - our education - our healthcare - in a heartbeat.

Anyone but the Liberals? You betcha.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget people. Campbell did say, he may stick around as an adviser to the BC Liberals. It is he, who is still going to govern BC, from the back bench, with Christy as his mouth piece. Morgan is just a deflector. Campbell still has a lot of his dirty work, that isn't yet completed. A control freak, such as Campbell would never allow Christy, to carry out his dirty work agenda. Christy has already reneged on her word. She was going to move up Campbell's, referendum date, suddenly she reneged. Where else could that have come from? I totally agree with Ron 1. This is Campbell's dirty work, that Christy will not be allowed to follow through on.

Skookum1 said...

The bowtie says it all....someone living in a fictional past.

Anonymous said...

The bowtie says it all....someone living in a fictional past.

Just like many bloggers.

Anonymous said...

"Don't forget people. Campbell did say, he may stick around as an adviser to the BC Liberals."

Just during the transition, which will end Monday.


"It is he, who is still going to govern BC, from the back bench, with Christy as his mouth piece."

Not going to happen.

"Christy has already reneged on her word. She was going to move up Campbell's, referendum date, suddenly she reneged."

How so? She said it would be moved up to around June 24. Cite?


Where else could that have come from? I totally agree with Ron 1. This is Campbell's dirty work, that Christy will not be allowed to follow through on."

Yes she will and will.

Keep this up, and Adrian Dix will become the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition after the next election.

Ryan Windsor said...

...it is my earnest submission that Gwyn Morgan will drive BC to TOTAL ruin.