FLETCHER: He’s not a lumberjack, and we’re not okay

Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.VICTORIA – When you’re overwhelmed by debt, healthcare is in critical condition, stores are closing because of theft and street disorder, and industries are failing, what do you do?If you’re BC Premier David Eby, you take a page from Mark Carney’s populist playbook, strike a pose in front of a maple leaf flag, and shake a fist at Donald Trump. Even when it’s a scenery-chewing bit of amateur theatre, he expects results from a low-information public taught to put feelings ahead of facts.The media got it wrong when Eby strolled out in a plaid lumber shirt to unveil unfunny new border signs this week. This is not a “Canadian tuxedo,” which is understood to be a denim jacket and jeans, but as the premier put it, a “Salmo dinner jacket,” a reference to the West Kootenay town known for voting NDP and once known as a vibrant forest industry community.To paraphrase an old Monty Python skit, he’s not a lumberjack, and we’re not OK. His team of poli-sci kids in the premier’s office got so carried away with their notion of hoser humour that they made a series of questionable choices.To be placed at US border points, the welcome-to-BC signs warn of moose, which are not known to be a traffic hazard in southern spots like Surrey or Salmo. They warn that BC will NEVER be the fifty-first state, sending a shudder through the White House, no doubt. And when you think they can’t be any worse, they sign off with, “sorry!” .The previously unknown hoser rapper who was hired to sing the premier into his event on Victoria Harbour kept saying something about “snow days,” which are rare here. My memory seems to have blocked out the rest of his performance.The logger theme was a particularly out-of-touch choice for Eby’s communications team. It came the same week as leaders of the actual forest industry sent the premier an open letter, calling for the immediate establishment of a “crisis action group” to save what’s left of the industry that has seen its latest wave of mill closures in recent months.It’s true that while the latest Trump tariff assault has once again targeted Canadian lumber among other products, there isn’t that much left to damage after 40 years of US industry attacks and BC NDP policies that restrict harvesting. BC’s Council of Forest Industries reports that 21 lumber mills have closed permanently since 2023.“While international trade pressures are beyond the province’s direct control, many of the conditions whether BC companies can continue to operate are not,” the letter states. The crisis group’s mandate “should be clear: get economically viable wood moving, reduce costs, remove regulatory barriers, stabilize fibre supply, protect operating businesses, and retain — not retrain — British Columbia’s skilled forestry workforce.”.Offering retraining or bridge-to-retirement buyouts has been a main focus of the NDP government’s response to lost industry jobs, along with sweeping restrictions on “old growth” logging that play well with the party’s urban base, and surrender of Crown land to indigenous groups claiming title.Protesting what’s left of BC’s forest industry continues to be a lucrative fundraiser, it seems. While earnest retired or unemployed people defy court orders, attempt to block roads, and insist that the last vestiges of BC’s ancient coastal forests are about to be cut down, the direct-action wing continues its campaign of tree-spiking in an effort to injure or kill the loggers and sawmill workers that remain.Out of all the task forces and reviews the BC government has laboured over in recent years, the latest is a recycled idea from previous administrations to divide the province’s vast timberlands into three categories: “working forest,” restricted harvesting, and off-limits.One of the first responses to be ritually conveyed by provincial media was from Union of BC Indian Chiefs president Stewart Phillip, who is treated as one of the spokespersons for all 200-odd indigenous groups. He fired off a statement expressing outrage that the NDP didn’t run this new policy by him before announcing it.Of course, it’s not a new idea, and it turns out Phillip’s organization had previously endorsed it. Now back to our regularly scheduled media events.Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: He’s not a lumberjack, and we’re not okay

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