BCBusiness

daRCY shaWChEk nOVEmBER 2018 BCBusiness 39 Weaver looks back, the fatigue now showing on his face, and says, "I'm a policy guy. I'd rather be sitting at a desk, working on a solution." Then, collecting himself, he adds, "But this is wonderful. I love talking to people, and the reaction is great. We wouldn't have got this •ve years ago. People want to vote for the Green Party." Five years ago—2013—marks the point where Weaver, the now-57-year-old, Victoria-born husband and father of two, transitioned from being one of the most admired and articulate climate scientists in Canada, arguably in the whole world, to being a politician, a necessarily self- promoting advocate, not just for the health of the planet, but for the fortunes of his own aspiring political party. Science, as Weaver practised it when he was still the Nobel Peace Prize–sharing Canada Research Chair in Climate Model- ling and Analysis at UVic, is the unfettered and uncompromising pursuit of knowledge and understanding. You ask your questions in the form of advanced experimentation and you publish your results, so your sci- enti•c peers may adopt new conclusions or tear your research to shreds, depending upon its robustness. It's all out in the open and, the oil industry's denial campaign not- withstanding, all black and white. Politics, on the other hand, is all com- promise. As Weaver discovered in negoti- ating a working agreement with BC New Democratic Party Leader (and, thanks to Weaver, Premier) John Horgan, everything is about the give and take. And as you com- promise, you are compromised. GAINING CONFIDENCE That was certainly borne out late last year, when the NDP endorsed continuing con- struction on the controversial Site C dam project and Weaver and his two Green col- leagues stood by. Erstwhile Green Party supporters were apoplectic—not least the person who might have been Weaver's highest-pro•le admirer up till that point. Environmental icon David Suzuki's view of "Dr. Andrew Weaver" had always been clear and favourable. "I'm a big fan of Andrew's," Suzuki said in a 2011 Weaver pro•le in BCBusiness. "He's one of the few Canadian scientists right now who's willing to put his life on the line and speak out." But after Weaver ducked on Site C, Suzuki told Andrew McLeod at The Tyee that he thought Weaver had sold out in the hopes of keeping the NDP in power long enough to win support for a new provincial system of proportional representation. "Now, politics comes before principle," Suzuki said. "So I'm really disillusioned." Sitting in a coŸee shop on that same August day, Weaver shrugs when the com- ment comes up. What, he asks, would have been the point of bringing down the government and triggering a new election when both the NDP and the BC Liberals sup- port continuing with Site C? Voters likely would have retreated to one of the major parties, delivering a clear majority to a Site C supporter, and the Greens would have lost both the argument and their leverage ongoing. Besides, Weaver says, Site C was not on the list of commitments that the Greens extracted from the NDP when they made the 2017 Con•dence and Supply Agreement I n the grand political tradition, Weaver has been shaking every outstretched hand, stopping—and smiling—for selfies, and handing out informa- tional cards on proportional representation—or flicking those cards, with amazing accuracy, to people leaning from balconies or second-storey win- dows. He's got a broad, engaging smile and a boyish enthusiasm; you can tell that he finds the card-flicking, especially, to be great fun. But as the parade pauses along Beach Avenue, we come to a halt: the smile fades, the shoulders droop, the rainbow shirt clings a little closer. And I say, "So, Andrew: is this your favourite part of politics? Least favourite?" pOINT OF CONTENTION Andrew Weaver (right) checks out the Site C dam project from a landowner's perspective

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