Michael Byers takes issue with NDP's attack on green shift

In the midst of an article where he spends the bulk of his time advocating a name change as the panacea for the NDP and far too little time on what really matters (policy reform), political science professor and former (and future?) NDP candidate Michael Byers has an interesting observation on NDP environmental policy in the last election:

In the last federal election, the NDP took the simple route of favouring cap-and-trade over carbon taxes. It ignored the fact that climate change will only ever be controlled by an across-the-board system of carbon pricing that includes both cap-and-trade and a carbon tax of some kind. A better approach would have been to support the intent of Stéphane Dion's proposal while identifying specific flaws, such as the failure to direct the resulting revenue into alternative sources of energy and an improved national rail network.

An interesting observation that both vindicates the Stephane Dion Green Shift (with the caveat of minor reforms around the disbursment of the funds raised) and without saying it outright, rejects the NDP strategy last election of demonizing the Green Shift, a strategy that didn't win it friends with the environmental movement and didn't help Carole James and the BC NDP much either when they tried it against Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals.

Of course, that didn't stop the professor from singing from the hymm book during the campaign.

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The professor got schooled by the doctor

An interesting article in the Vancouver Sun last week, where Barbra Yaffe speaks with a reflective Michael Byers, the NDP candidate that was the latest of the many high-profile contenders to be shut down by Liberal MP Hedy Fry in Vancouver-Centre.

The political science professor says he learned there's a big difference between the classroom theory and the political trenches. Very true. He's candid in the interview about his naivete, and reading the piece I was surprised at just now naive he was:

He cites his own naivete in not recognizing the "logical complexities of running campaigns." He didn't appreciate the importance of a campaign apparatus to identify and then pull the vote, nor did he have time to assemble one. He'll now concentrate on building his party's riding membership and fund raising capability.

He has learned some lessons though, namely to blame any verbal stumble on media misquoting or taking out if context:

Byers regrets a verbal stumble he made during the campaign, when he called for the oilsands to be shut down. The quote was taken out of context, he says; he meant the development should gradually be wound down.

If wasn't 'taken' out of context, he misspoke and didn't put his comments in the proper context. There's a difference, professor. First lesson of real-world politics though: it's never your fault.

Anyway, an interesting piece about the differences between political theory and real world politics. If he does indeed run again, we'll see if he's really learned any lessons. At least his poly sci lectures should be a little more interesting now.

I know there's one thing I learned from the race in Vancouver-Centre: never, ever underestimate Dr. Hedy Fry. She's a machine.

Professor learns some lessons in political campaign

Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008

As NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre, political science professor Michael Byers, unusually, found himself on the learning end of the equation.

The star candidate who wound up losing last week's election to Liberal MP Hedy Fry now says: "Winning was a long shot in 2008."

Byers also lost 10 pounds and a few thousand dollars in income as a result of a leave of absence from the University of British Columbia.

But "I've gained so much, I've won on a personal level." He still intends to become the riding MP; it's just going to take him a bit longer.
(more)

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