It would be a shame for an election issue like fracking to be reduced to a war of words as the 60 per cent of Yukoners who didn’t vote for the Yukon Party over the past three elections get set to cast their ballot on Nov. 7.
To be clear, there’s only one party that wants fracking in the Yukon, and that’s the Yukon Party. While the Yukon Liberals will enforce an immediate moratorium, the NDP would call it a ban, but they’re really the same thing. Moratoriums can be indefinite just as bans can be lifted, so let’s not pretend that one is more absolute than the other. The cod moratorium in Newfoundland, for example, has lasted 24 years (and counting), and bans, although sounding unconditional, are only as long as their enforcers are popular.
What we need to decide is how we’re going to win this coming election. We need to talk to our friends, our colleagues, and our neighbours, and find out what we all think of who’s been knocking on our doors. We have to stop preaching fear and stand up for all Yukoners. We know how to do this, because we did it last fall, when we brought Larry Bagnell back. So let’s not focus on what a moratorium is versus a ban. Let’s start talking about what team we want to best represent us in our government. My money is on Sandy Sliver and the Yukon Liberals.
Eldon Organ,
Whitehorse