Shuffle pleases Coleman's foes

B.C. environmental groups, long calling for Rich Coleman's political head, said yesterday they were "very happy" he'd been shuffled out of the forestry portfolio.

"We've been running a campaign asking for his resignation for the last eight months," said Maurita Prato, forest campaigner with the Dogwood Initiative, a non-profit environmental agency.

"About a month ago we submitted a petition into the legislature with 2,000 concerned citizens asking he resign. So of course we're very happy he's being shuffled out."

Environmental groups made Coleman the target of frequent criticism since his appointment in 2005, as coastal mills continued to close and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs. Prato said she believes Coleman could have done more to protect the industry.

In March, around 1,300 protesters convened at the legislature to demand Coleman act to save old-growth forests and end raw-log exports. It was the largest protest since the Clayoquot Sound rallies 15 years ago.

Susan Howatt, campaigns director for Sierra Club B.C., said Coleman leaves a "horrific legacy" for allowing Western Forest Products to remove about 28,000 hectares of private land from tree-farm licences near Jordan River in 2007. WFP then provisionally sold 2,500 hectares to a developer. WFP also applied to develop subdivisions before government could sign changes to limit lot sizes. The moves sparked an angry outcry from local residents.

Environmentalists say they remain cautiously optimistic Pat Bell will do a better job, as he moves from agriculture to forestry.

Bell was "the champion within cabinet" on the implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements in 2006, which protected 1.8 million hectares of B.C. wilderness, said Valerie Langer, director of B.C. coast campaigns for ForestEthics, an international non-profit organization that works to protect endangered forests.

"We weren't getting very much traction on a number of forestry issues with Minister Coleman, and we've seen Minister Bell move forward a number of important projects," said Langer.

"I think this is a good

move for the ministry of forests."

FIVE NEW FACES

BLAIR LEKSTROM

Peace River South

He objects to being called a "maverick," but Lekstrom made a name in 2002 as the only one of 77 Liberals to vote againt Bill 29, which tore up the contracts of hospital workers. "I have never supported opening up existing contracts," he told the Vancouver Sun at the time. " He also voted against two First Nations treaties and opposed removal of four historic murals from the B.C. legislature.

JOAN MCINTYRE

W. Vancouver Garibaldi

McIntyre currently sits on treasury board and the cabinet committee on climate action. Before winning her seat in 2005, she co-founded the polling firm McIntyre & Mustel Research Associates Ltd., and later provided strategic advice to numerous political campaigns. A low-key performer in the legislature, she is known for her two-handed desk-thumping support of Liberal ministers during question period.

MARY POLAK

Langley

Polak chaired the Surrey school board that spent more than $1 million fighting to ban books about same-sex couples from elementary schools. She is also on record as being opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage. Former Victoria Liberal MLA Sheila Orr said of Polak in 2005: "I've never been comfortable with the fact that we have people very far to the right. I live with it, and I work around it, but I'm not comfortable, no."

IAIN BLACK

Port Moody Westwood First elected in 2005, Black previously led a number of high-tech companies. As a backbencher, he chaired the special committee to appoint a conflict of interest commisioner as well as the government caucus committee on natural resources. He gained media attention recently for spearheading the mandatory use of booster seats in cars to protect young children.

BILL BENNETT

East Kootenay

A government veteran, Bennett previosly served as minister of state for mining. He resigned that post in early 2007 after sending an intemperate e-mail to a constitutent in which he accused the man of being a spy and called him a "self-inflated, pompous American know-it-all."