It’s well known in British Columbia that if a party wants to hold power in Victoria, solid support in the province’s hinterlands is a prerequisite.

Legendary former premier W.A.C. Bennett understood this better than most, which is why the one-time Kelowna hardware store owner and his Social Credit Party went to great lengths in the 1950s and ’60s to give rural British Columbians what they wanted. The crafty W.A.C. held power for years by giving rural voters first-class roads, bridges, hydroelectric power plants, pulp mills, lumber mills, natural gas development and mines.

Rural British Columbians still look to resources for economic security today, but two relatively new elements are changing this landscape: there’s a general rise in environmental awareness; and the First Nations have considerably more power and influence.

But a serious disconnect is developing regarding the hinterlands. The Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell continues to push upcountry resources development the old-fashioned way while simultaneously projecting themselves in the more populated south as “green and clean.”

The latest example is a $4.5-billion, 1,170-kilometre oil pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. The new pipeline would transport oil from the Alberta tarsands to a new saltwater port in Kitimat, B.C. It would carry 525,000 barrels of oil daily for export by tankers to Asia.

Two decades ago, such a project would have been welcomed in B.C. But that was before the Exxon Valdez ran aground on March 24, 1989, and dumped 41.8 million litres of crude oil on Alaska’s beaches.

Today, an unprecedented alliance of 150 First Nations, environmentalists, labour unions, businesses and even sports and entertainment celebrities have united to oppose the pipeline scheme, despite its huge job-generating potential.

Campbell defends the project, which is still in its early days. But if the premier doesn’t budge, he’ll put himself on a collision course with many First Nations groups, whose support he has courted for most of his three terms.

Campbell’s government is also fast-tracking an upcountry natural gas development, the notion being that natural gas is “green” because its impact on the environment is less dramatic than that of oil. In fact, the government intends to double B.C.’s natural gas production by next year. If that goal is attained, it is likely to give the economy a significant boost — the natural gas sector is already worth about $9 billion.

But this, too, has many hinterland residents concerned, especially when sour gas wells can be drilled within 100 metres of residences.

Another Campbell-sponsored megaproposal has also met stiff resistance from rural residents. While the $6.6-billion Site C dam on the Peace River would produce renewable energy from hydro power, northern British Columbians say it’s not green enough for them. Their concern is that the dam would destroy more than 7,000 acres of high-quality Class 1 and Class 2 farmland, to say nothing of the dam’s impact on the local ecosystem.

Critics also charge that most of this plant’s 900 megawatts of power would be exported to California and Alberta, especially in its early days of operation.

You’d think that a more sensitive government would read the shift in voter attitudes and adjust its policies accordingly. But Campbell’s clan is proving to be as inflexible as ever. Many rural British Columbians are becoming increasingly frustrated — and angry. IE