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Kent Clark Profile picture
@kentcclark
Oct 1 • 17 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
Who are the BC Conservatives and how did they go from nobodies to possibly winning this election? Would it surprise you to learn that the answer involves shadowy right-wing orgs and the oil industry? Of course it wouldn't.

Buckle up. 🧵
This all starts in 2018 with the removal of a statue of John A MacDonald from the steps of Victoria city hall. Here "BC Proud spokesperson" Aaron Gunn marches alongside the Soldiers of Odin to protest its removal.

pentictonwesternnews.com/news/protestor…
Shortly after, at the Hellenic Cultural Center the UBC Free Speech Club had invited (Kremlin stooge) Lauren Southern to talk alongside famous white nationalist Stephan Molyneux.

vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archiv…
The UBC Free Speech Club had a bad rep, one which would only get worse with time, reaching a peak when they went full Nazi at Devils Elbow.

biv.com/news/economy-l…
And who was it behind all of this and why? Angelo Isidorou, the MAGA hat kid. Image
Isidorou has been a US-style right-wing activist alongside Aaron Gunn in the group BC Proud, offshoot of Jeff Ballingal's Canada Proud.

nationalobserver.com/2022/03/17/inv…
Then in 2021 BC Proud see's an opportunity. The BC Liberals are broken, and looking for new leadership. They push Aaron Gunn as a candidate.

pressprogress.ca/possible-leade…
One might recognize some of Gunn's issues. However, Gunn is rejected by party insiders and fails to even reach a vote.

Shortly after rumors start circulating that they're talking with another party...

Gunn and Isidorou would join the BC Conservatives. Gunn would run as an MLA. Isidorou would land a leadership role as the executive director of the party.
So how did these two guys manage to turn a dead party into the leading party in BC polls? We can't say entirely for sure, but we have a pretty good idea. The secret lies with their parent org: Canada Proud
BC Proud was a subsidiary of Canada Proud, who also owns Ontario Proud. All three are founded by Jeff Ballingal. Ballingal runs Mobilize Media Group, which Isidorou previously worked for.

From the National Observer link above: Image
Mobilize Media Group has been hired by the federal Conservatives to boost their messages online. So when Poilievre suddenly posts something that is perfectly in line with what the BC Cons are saying, you know why

cbc.ca/news/politics/…
Canada Proud has is funded by the Modern Miracle Network, a pro-oil astroturf organization headed by ex-oil executive Michael Binnion.

pressprogress.ca/here-is-ontari…
To quote @macleans (via @DeSmog ) "Oil money has also contributed to the network of Proud groups across Canada, which have been linked to Ballingall’s Ontario Proud."

archive.ph/ebiGh
This is, sadly, the political reality now. We have to be extra vigilant to keep oil industry funded astroturf groups at bay as they not only funnel hundreds of thousands, even millions, into our political campaigns, but place their guys within our parties.
For more on Isidorou and Gunn and their connections to other right-wing social movements, see my other thread at: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1620554…
For more on the BC Conservatives and the ridiculous candidates that Isidorou has brought into that party, see @pressprogress's fantastic reporting

pressprogress.ca/archives/

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More from @kentcclark

Kent Clark Profile picture
Apr 22
It feels a little insane, but every time I look at a right-wing movement, there is some connection to the International Democracy Union (IDU). Scandals, the convoy, the overthrow of the US government, even...

... ABC Vancouver.

Buckle up folks.
buff.ly/3WaUVJ6
Image
For those who don't know the IDU, it was founded in 1983 by the likes of Maragret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, and Jacques Chirac, among others. In 2018 Stephen Harper became its chairman.

buff.ly/4aJ323U
Despite claiming to be "center-right", the group has welcomed increasingly far-right groups like Hungary's Viktor Orban...
buff.ly/3xHQPxL
Read 16 tweets
Kent Clark Profile picture
Feb 18
Has anyone looked at this account that @angelahaer retweeted at 5pm last night?

Their first post was at 4pm yesterday. Haer picked it up at 5 and until recently WAS ITS ONLY FOLLOWER. Gee, I wonder who could be behind it? Image
It's since removed them, but it also originally followed quite a host of characters. Also on the list: Mayors Office's Trevor Ford. Image
Stephen Jagger there is the co-founder of Addy investments. That surprised me. I read up on them recently after Ken Sim's recent disclosure that he was an investor in it (note, Causis is still there): Image
Read 5 tweets
Kent Clark Profile picture
Aug 28, 2023
*Sigh* I just looked over @TranBC's plan for Hwy1, and I am once again disappointed. First, lets mention the core issues that this plan brings up, but then does nothing to resolve.
This is the central problem. We have increasing motor vehicle use, despite being in the middle of a climate crisis. This is what must be resolved before we can reduce congestion on this route. Simply put: you can't build enough capacity to make up for increasing traffic. Image
This is because as we devote more and more to motor vehicles, we encourage more motor vehicle use, countering the capacity gains we built. Further, we reduce resources and space dedicated to walkable/bikeable/livable space, driving those people into cars.
Read 16 tweets
Kent Clark Profile picture
Feb 15, 2023
I re-read this today. Has anyone else noticed who the people in the quotes at the bottom are? Yes, it's all those people who I talked about in my last thread!

Buckle up.

bcliberals.com/2023/02/02/bet…
The first is from Dr. Julian Somers, who you might remember from this:

And this:

Read 20 tweets
Kent Clark Profile picture
Jan 31, 2023
Years ago, I warned that the homeless were the next target of the Canadian far-right. In this thread I am going to show the host of people and organizations that are part of this movement against the impoverished and addicted.

Warning: this will be long.
The first organization to know about is BC Proud. They're an offshoot of the same Canada Proud, founded by former Conservative Party staffer Jeff Ballingall.
torontolife.com/city/qa-jeff-b…
If you look at their Facebook page you will notice the standard far-right media, including anti-LGBTQ memes and support for people like Peterson.

But on the left hand side, you can see their page is managed by "Pacific Prosperity Network".

facebook.com/BCProud/
Image
Read 33 tweets
Kent Clark Profile picture
Jun 17, 2021
I hate the discourse around housing in this city. There's so much conspiracy and racism and it's just sickening. So to handle that, we gathered the numbers on this stuff. We know the rates. So why can't we have a rational conversation about it?

Warning, stats.
In the 2010s there was a push to get BC Hydro to look at power usage rates, under the belief that this would prove the foreign-owned-vacant-houses theory right. Eventually, the province responded and BC Hydro along with Ecotagious did.
There was no smoking gun. Instead they found a non-occupancy rate of ~5% (7% for apartments). More interestingly, it had remained flat since 2002, and non-occupancy was primarily in condos (more on that later). It sat at 1% for houses, row houses, etc.

council.vancouver.ca/20160308/docum…
Read 11 tweets

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