Premier Christy Clark could kill two birds with one stone. She could get elected by ensuring that revenues from the pipeline activity go to reducing ferry costs on at least the main mainlandtoVancouver Island routes.
They are the ones that are truly part of the B.C. highway system - fares are way too high and they are cutting sailings.The status quo is unacceptable and outrageously expensive. And promises to get worse.
We do have the government residing on Vancouver Island, so all B.C. taxpayers should share in such a ferry subsidy. Smaller island ferries, where people chose to live, would not be so subsidized.
The NDP won't want to bring up anything about ferries again - it's their Achilles heel after the fast-ferry fiasco - so she gets support for the pipeline via a subsidized ferry system through the revenue generated by the pipeline construction and rights of way. And the ferry workers get to keep working.
That will quiet the naysayers about the pipeline, other than the hardcore environmentalists, and offer real benefit to all the electorate.
Thus Clark could demonstrate true leadership, which has been sadly lacking in all of our parties.
John Hickson
Cobble Hill
