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A core principle of a Commons democracy is that it limits and questions the demands of vested interest groups seeking special privileges. This Alberta case example shows how “raw democracy” forced the Kenney government to backtrack on its many backroom deals with Australian coal miners. Citizens of all stripes and colours formed a loose coalition to defend water quality and the beauty of the Rockies’ eastern slopes from a proposed open-pit coal mine in the middle of a critical watershed, a proposal their government supported. This giant public wave of protest brought their own concerns and public science, which the joint Federal and provincial panel could not ignore in their decision to block the proposal. – Susan McGrath
“The system only worked because it was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the real world by the people of Alberta. Unlike the Jason Kenney government, Albertans understand in a visceral way that water is the only true treasure in an arid land, and that mountain brooks quickly lose their song if we dig up all the rocks for coking coal to fuel steel mills…
But three powerful events forced a corrupt system, which typically never says no to Big Capital, to reject the coal project: democracy, public science and shoddy environmental work by Benga Mining, which is owned by the Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart. […]”
