Provincial politics. There, I said them — two of the most boring words in the English language.

There’s no denying it. Provincial elections fail to capture the imaginations of citizens the way national or even international elections do.

Case in point: in the last B.C. provincial election, just 55 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot — 13 per cent fewer than voted in the last federal election.

I get it: most of us are just trying to pay the bills, put dinner on the table and make sure the kids get to soccer practice. There’s not exactly a whole lot of time (or energy) left to monitor several different levels of politics.

Yet Canadians have been captivated by the train wreck that’s been unfolding south of the border for the last six months — even though there ain’t much we can do about another country’s state of affairs.

So if you give a shit about the state of the world, now’s as good a time as any to focus on what you can change. If you’re a British Columbian, you’ve got a golden opportunity to make your mark in just one week from today.

In Canada, the provinces are responsible for managing things like health care, education, housing and natural resources — so, snooze-worthy or not, provincial politics have a major influence over our day-to-day lives.

Here are our Top 5 reasons to give a shit about the B.C. election.

1) Because It’s a Referendum on Big Money in Politics

When the New York Times devotes an entire article to how corrupt your province’s politics have become, calling it the ‘wild west’ of political cash, it’s time to sit up and pay attention.

Here are the facts: unlike many other provinces, B.C. has no limits on political donations. Anyone, including foreigners and foreign companies, can give as much moola as they want to political parties in our province.

A Globe and Mail investigation this spring found lobbyists breaking one of the few rules B.C. has in place by donating to the B.C. Liberals under their own names, while being reimbursed by companies, thus concealing the true source of the money.

An RCMP investigation is now underway into the practice. Meanwhile, the B.C. Liberals (who are not affiliated with the federal Liberal party and are actually strongly aligned with the federal Conservative party) announced they would return $93,000 in prohibited donations.

Thanks to these lax laws, the Liberals raised $12.6 million in 2016 — more than any other provincial party in power. The B.C. NDP meanwhile raised $6.2 million in 2016.

Despite the fact 86 per cent of British Columbians want to see big money banned from politics, the Liberals have defeated six NDP bills to ban big money in politics.

When asked during the televised leaders’ debate about how she’d regain British Columbians’ trust after the donations scandal, Clark said: “I think the thing that matters most to British Columbians is jobs.”

If corruption matters to you, this is your chance to get big money out of politics.  Both the NDP and the Greens have promised to ban corporate and union donations if elected.

2) Two Words: ‘Legalized Bribery’

In a system that’s been called ‘legalized bribery,’ Premier Christy Clark has been receiving an annual stipend of up to $50,000 from her party, financed by political contributions. This is in addition to her $195,000 a year salary paid for by taxpayers.

“No elected official in the U.S. is allowed to get a stipend; that would be bribery,” said Dan Levin, a New York Times reporter covering Canada. “I lived in China for seven-and-a-half years; in China or Russia this would just be called ‘corruption’ or ‘nepotism.’ But here, it’s just ‘legal.’ ”

That salary top-up led two groups to file a court challenge to overturn the government’s decision on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline due to alleged conflicts of interest between the premier and project proponents, who have given $560,000 in political contributions over six years to the Liberal party.

A week after the New York Times turned its glaring spotlight on B.C., Clark finally announced she’ll stop the controversial salary top-up. But the B.C. Liberals still haven’t made any commitment to get big money out of politics.

While Clark has been raking in close to $250,000 a year, during the 16-year tenure of the B.C. Liberals, the cost of living for ordinary British Columbians has skyrocketed — from housing and child care to health care premiums, Hydro bills and ICBC rates.

Entire campaigns have popped up to stop the squeeze on younger British Columbians and fight for $10 a day childcare. If the ability for working class people to get by matters to you, cast a ballot, mmmmkay?

3) Because The Largest Mining Disaster in Canadian History Went Unpunished

When a dam broke at the Mount Polley mine in August 2014, it unleashed a four-square-kilometre lake full of mining waste into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, a source of drinking water and major spawning grounds for sockeye salmon.

You might be thinking: that sounds really shitty, but surely it’s not the government’s fault?

Oh how we wish that were the case. But a two-year investigation by B.C.’s auditor general found that compliance and enforcement expectations were not met after a “decade of neglect.”

The report said that to reduce the risk of “unfortunate and preventable incidents like Mount Polley,”compliance and enforcement should be separated from the Ministry of Energy and Mines Ministry because the ministry’s role to promote mining development creates an “irreconcilable conflict.”

But guess what? The government ignored that recommendation and continues business as usual. In fact, the government approved another mine with a massive tailings pond just like the one at Mount Polley, even though an expert panel said to stop doing that. Alaskans downstream are so worried about their salmon rivers that they’re practically begging the B.C. government to get its shit together.

Meanwhile, Mount Polley and its parent company Imperial Metals got off without a single fine or criminal charge for the largest mining accident in Canadian history.

To add insult to injury, British Columbians have been left on the hook for millions of dollars of clean-up bills for the Mount Polley spill.

And now, just days before the writ dropped, the B.C. government approved a permit for Mount Polley to discharge mining waste directly into Quesnel Lake. Seriously.

You’d almost think there was some corruption at play or something.

P.S. Mount Polley and its parent company Imperial Metals have donated more than $200,000 to the B.C. Liberals since 2005.

4) Because We’re Still Killing Grizzly Bears for Trophies

Since we’re on the topic of totally screwed up things that B.C. allows because of unlimited political donations, let’s talk about grizzly bears. About 300 of them will be killed this year so that hunters can hang their heads on the wall at home.

Many grizzlies will be killed in B.C.’s provincial parks and protected areas. Many will be females. This will happen despite the fact 90 per cent of British Columbians want to see trophy hunting banned.

Photo: Dogwood

Why? Money talks yet again.

Guide outfitters — who can earn as much as $20,000 for helping a foreign hunter bag a grizzly bear — have donated nearly $62,000 to the B.C. Liberals since 2005.

Fun fact: a 2012 study by Stanford University in conjunction with the Center for Responsible Travel found that bear viewing groups in the Great Bear Rainforest generated more than 12 times more in visitor spending than bear hunting.

Most recently, wealthy hunting society Safari Club International donated $60,000 to the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., bragging in a since-removed Facebook post about “working … to prevent the NDP from getting elected.”

The NDP have vowed to end the trophy hunt, as have the Green Party.

Safari Club International spent nearly a million dollars lobbying in the U.S. last year, including on legislation related to species such as elephants, wolves and polar bears. Handy fact: One of their members was responsible for killing Cecil the Lion.

Ahem, did we mention this is your chance to get big money out of politics?

5) Because We’re Losing Our Place in the World

There was a while there when B.C. was praised for being a leader in tackling climate change, while maintaining one of the strongest economies in Canada. That time is over.

A recent L.A. Times piece focused on B.C.’s new “embrace of fossil fuels.”

“Now, however, Canada’s West Coast is striving toward a very different kind of cutting edge: British Columbia is positioning itself to become a global leader in exporting fossil fuels, with plans to nearly triple crude oil exports through a controversial new pipeline and vastly expand production of liquefied natural gas to be sold in Asia,” read a recent piece in the Los Angeles Times.

Premier Christy Clark has been a big pusher of any and all fossil fuel development, including a stunning about-face on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline. Meanwhile, she decided to ignore the recommendations of her expert panel on climate change.

It’s gotten so bad that even former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell —who’s given precious few interviews — had some choice words for B.C. in the Los Angeles Times article.

“They still say that they take pride in having a revenue-neutral carbon tax,” Campbell said. “If you do, then what are the next steps you take? The journey’s not done. We started it with some good, strong policies that I would have liked to see carry on. But it’s up to the current elected leaders. There are leaders and there are followers.”

Even if climate change isn’t No. 1 on your priority list, chances are you don’t want B.C. to become a laggard on the global climate file just as the world accelerates toward a clean energy economy.

This no-holds-barred approach to natural resources has antagonized B.C.’s First Nations, who are calling on their friends and allies to vote for anyone but Clark.

“The Clark government has virtually neglected the people of British Columbia in her obsessive pursuit of large-scale resource development projects,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip at a press conference this week.

Grievances include the B.C. Liberals’ continued musings about LNG, even though the market appears to be dead, and their bull-headed approach to the Site C dam, which Phillip described as a “sleazy, political make-work project to shore up the failings B.C. Jobs program.”

Why is Clark so enthusiastic about fossil fuel exports? It could have something to do with the 22,000 meetings her government has had with fossil fuel lobbyists since 2010. Or with the roughly $4 million in donations her party has received from oil and gas companies since 2008. Just sayin’.

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A diverse group of experts, scholars, First Nations and civil society organizations recently released a sweeping program that shows just how Canada can transition to a low-carbon society.

Building on a March 2015 report, Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian Scholars, a group of academics from Sustainable Canada Dialogues reached out to individuals and groups from across Canada in an attempt to engage society in the question of our low-carbon transition.

The result, Acting on Climate Change: Extending the Dialogue Among Canadians, brings together a broad range of insight from across the social and political spectrum.

The report comes on the heels of an open letter (attached below) to federal leaders, calling for a “national dialogue on climate change policy.” The letter, released by 60 academics with Sustainable Canada Dialogues, states a national conversation is needed “to identify socially acceptable transition pathways to a low-carbon society and economy.”

“We hope each party will enrich its position with ideas put forward by Canadians, before, during and after this election campaign, to restore Canada’s global leadership as a champion for the environment.”

Catherine Potvin, editor of the new report, writes 2015 is an important year for climate intervention.

“It is crucial to elect a federal government that has a climate action target with a coherent plan to achieve it,” Potvin states in the report’s foreword.

“I hope [this report] helps citizens make clear demands on their governments and believe in the future.”

First Nations Rights a Priority Concern

Among the report’s highlights is a submission by the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Sustainable Development Institute that emphasizes the importance of First Nations political sovereignty in government-to-government relations.

“Considering the wide-ranging impacts that climate policies could have on the Aboriginal Title and Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of First Nations, in particular regarding the use of their territories, it is essential that First Nation governments be involved from the beginning in this dialogue,” the authors write.

The importance of First Nations constitutional and territory rights are critical when considering the role the extractive industries play on traditional lands and within the context of climate change.

Government and Industry Need to Seek Opportunities

A submission from the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s president Scott Vaughan questions the capacity for market mechanisms to adequately address the need for urgent climate action.

Vaughan, Canada’s former Environment Commissioner, argues a more intentional collaboration is needed between government and industry to spur low-carbon innovation.

Vaughn points out the “various rigidities” of the oil, gas and coal sectors when it comes to measuring performance and expenditures.

“Climate debates need to turn towards the opportunities,” Vaughan writes, “to accelerate zero-carbon energy options that benefit from a longer tradition of purposeful industrial policy.”

Workers Must be Considered in Low-Carbon Transition

Erik Bouchard-Boulianne from the Centrale des syndicats de Québec (CSQ), one of the largest trade unions in Quebec, said transitioning to a low-carbon economy will bring big changes to each of the provinces. 

“There will be winning sectors and losing sectors,” he said in an interview included in the report.

Bouchard-Boulianne pointed out that Quebec will benefit from a move away from oil, which represents a large portion of the province’s trade deficit. Quebec imported about $18 billion in petroleum products in 2014.

Alternatively, he points out that Alberta, as an oil-producing province, will be hit hardest in the transition.

The key to helping workers throughout this transition is implementing support programs like unemployment insurance and re-qualification training.

Bring Science Back

Science advocacy group Evidence for Democracy argues a low-carbon transition will require both scientific and political leadership.

“Integrity of science and evidence have an important role to play in not only facilitating this transition, but also providing the forecasting and monitoring skills necessary for adaptive management throughout the process.”

Evidence for Democracy recommends the federal government play a central role in reducing carbon emissions, increase funding support for scientists and monitoring programs, fund academic researchers engaged in non-commercial science and produce climate and emissions policies that are transparent and based on best available evidence.

Make it Count for Youth

Generation Squeeze, an organization that advocates for young Canadians, writes a low-carbon society should focus on “leav[ing] at least as much as we inherit.”

That will require the better use and collection of tax dollars, leading to the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies and putting a price on pollution, writes author Paul Kershaw.

“Generation Squeeze recommends that Sustainable Canada Dialogues contribute to telling a broader narrative about generational prosperity and intergenerational fairness.”

Charting Low-Carbon Pathways

The David Suzuki Foundation also contributed to the report, outlining Canada’s various opportunities to cut carbon including reducing the use of coal and prioritizing renewable energy, a sector that now contributes $12 billion to the Canadian economy.

As Canada heads to the UN climate summit, policy makers can look to domestic successes for carbon-reduction opportunities.

“When Canadians head to the polls in October, we are deciding who will represent us at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit and the vision they have for Canada’s role in acting on climate change,” Dr. Mark Stoddart, from Memorial University and one of 60 co-authors of Sustainable Canada’s Dialogues original climate action plan, said.

“Extending the Dialogue Among Canadians provides novel ideas that can inform the next federal government,” he said.

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A report released today by Samara Canada — a charity dedicated to reconnecting citizens to politics — calls into question the idea that Canadian youth are apathetic and stresses the importance of contact from political leaders to increase voter turnout.

The report, Message Not Delivered, finds that across 18 forms of civic and political participation beyond voting — including signing petitions, talking about politics, volunteering or attending a protest — Canadians under 30 participate at a rate 11 percentage points higher than those 30 and above.

Yet in the 2011 federal election, only 41 per cent of people under 30 voted — compared to 63 per cent of people over the age of 30.

The report compares political participation and contact rates between citizens and Canadian political leaders across three age groups and finds that Canada’s political leaders are not reaching out to all Canadians equally. In a 12-month period leading into an election year, only 55 per cent of Canadians ages 18 to 29 reported being contacted, compared to 75 per cent of Canadians ages 56 and older.

“This news is troubling,” says Jane Hilderman, Samara’s executive director. “Contact from political leaders is powerful: it encourages people to vote — increasing turnout — and strengthens their awareness of politics.”

Indeed, Elections Canada’s 2011 National Youth Survey found that turnout for youth contacted by political leaders was 15 percentage points higher.

In Samara’s study, among young Canadians who reported contact via all five methods (e-mail, phone, mail, social network and in person), 61 per cent said they are affected by the decisions made by elected officials “every day.” Among young Canadians who reported no contact only 22 per cent agreed with the statement.

“The upshot is that younger Canadians aren’t more politically apathetic or tuned out than their older counterparts; they’re more ignored by parties, candidates and leaders than older Canadians, which may partially explain declining voter turnout amongst youth,” the report finds.

Part of the issue is that youth are generally harder to reach because they move more frequently than other age groups and rarely have a landline telephone or listed address, but the problem goes beyond that to the types of issues political candidates are talking about.

“When it comes to political engagement, people talk about the vicious cycle, where candidates don't prioritize younger Canadians, so younger Canadians vote less, so candidates make younger Canadians even less of a priority, and on it goes,” says Eric Swanson, executive director of Generation Squeeze — a group that lobbies for policy changes that would benefit younger Canadians.

To break that cycle, Swanson says candidates need to not just contact young people, but also demonstrate a real understanding of their lived experience “whether it be precarious work, high housing costs, student debt, the costs of starting a family, anxiety about climate change, etcetera.”  

The Samara report also points a finger at political messages that fail to resonate with young people. 

“This failure could be a result of the way the message is framed or the type of language that’s used," the report finds. "It could also be that the issue itself isn’t appealing to youth and doesn’t stand out amidst all the other media competing for their attention."

In the 2015 federal election campaign, Swanson gives credit to all parties for raising issues such as child care and affordable housing, but says many of those promises lack sufficient funding commitments to make the day-to-day difference younger Canadians are looking for.

With political parties often missing the boat on connecting with younger Canadians, other groups are stepping up to fill the void. Dogwood Initiative, for instance, is focused on connecting politics to issues British Columbians care about, such as oil pipeline and tanker proposals.

The non-partisan citizen’s group has about 260,000 supporters in B.C. and its teams of volunteers are having face-to-face conversations with potential voters in 20 federal ridings.

“The first questions we ask are about values,” says Celine Trojand, Dogwood’s field director.

After making contact, Dogwood follows up with updates and makes ‘get out the vote’ calls before election day to ensure citizens have a plan to get to the polls.

It's a strategy that works. After the last municipal elections in B.C., Dogwood analyzed the different levels of contact people received from the group. In Vancouver, for instance, the general voter turnout was 39 per cent. The turnout of Dogwood supporters who had received an e-mail communication about voting was 67 per cent. When people also received a phone call, voter turnout increased to 81 per cent.

“So we’re seeing a 14 per cent increase on voter turnout based on real, live contact with people,” Trojand says.

As for young people, Trojand says the Samara findings aren't surprising.

“Our feeling is that it’s not that the younger demographic isn’t engaged,” Trojand says. “It’s that the local parties aren’t engaging about issues that they care about. Third parties like Dogwood and others have an advantage because they’re actually connecting about values first, on things young people care about like climate change.”

Photo: Dogwood Initiative

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.