As if the federal conservatives don’t have enough concerns about the autumn 2015 election. Now, a key economic development platform that centres on more oil-export pipelines and tankers on the West Coast spells trouble.

In addition to fighting the New Democratic Party and the Liberals, the Tories now face much firmer opposition in British Columbia from the anti-pipeline/oil tanker crowd, thanks to a relatively small oil spill in Vancouver’s formerly pristine English Bay.

On April 8, the bulk cargo carrier MV Marathassa, a newly constructed bulk grain carrier, was at anchor in English Bay awaiting an inner-harbour berth when, at about 5 p.m., the first report was issued about what turned out to be a spill from the ship of approximately 2,700 litres of oil.

Subsequent reports indicated the Canadian Coast Guard took about three hours to begin containing the spill area around the ship, five hours before the Marathassa was actually boarded, and seven hours before a private contractor placed a boom around the vessel.

It was a full 13 hours before the City of Vancouver was informed, which meant that only then were police, fire, biologists and wildlife rescue experts called in.

Consequently, by the time the spill cleanup actually began, seabirds were found covered in oil and the seawall around Siwash Rock in Stanley Park was forced to close temporarily.

Remember, this was a minor spill of a lightweight oil product occurring in the midst of one of the largest ports in North America on a calm weather day. The incident certainly begs the question: “What would a major spill of heavy crude oil in a remote part of B.C.’s coast be like?”

As the Vancouver Sun stated in a subsequent editorial: “The incident serves as a cautionary tale in advance of decisions regarding the Northern Gateway project in northern B.C. and an expansion of the Trans-Mountain pipeline to bring greater volumes of Alberta oil to Burnaby, the point from which many more oil tankers would depart for Asian markets.”

But the April spill’s political damage was worse, thanks to the federal government’s boneheaded cost-cutting closure in 2013 of the nearby Kitsilano Coast Guard station. The response to the spill may have been much quicker had that station remained operational.

In fact, the Tories still refuse to reopen the Kitsilano station, which also served as a key marine rescue centre for the high-traffic areas of Vancouver Harbor and the Strait of Georgia, including the Gulf Islands. Now, the Tories’ worst fear is that April’s spill will come back to haunt them next autumn – and new polls indicate this may happen.

For example, an Insights West poll for the B.C.-based Dogwood Initiative (a non-profit environmental group) found that the federal NDP now lead the Conservatives in four key battleground ridings on the West Coast: Courtenay Alberni, Cowichan Malahat Langford and Esquimalt Saanich Sooke on Vancouver Island, along with Burnaby North Seymour on the Lower Mainland. The poll also found that a clear majority in these ridings don’t want more coastal oil tanker traffic. In addition, gruesome TV footage of blackened beaches from a recent oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif., reinforces that resolve.

Obviously, oil and the Tories aren’t mixing well on Canada’s West Coast.

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