Liberals stage comeback to win in Canada's British Columbia

By Jennifer Kwan

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - The incumbent Liberal Party won an election in the Canadian Pacific province of British Columbia on Tuesday, in a stunning comeback that defied the pollsters who had expected voters to boot the party out of power.

The Liberals, in power for more than a decade, lost support after the introduction, and then cancellation, of an unpopular sales tax. But they gained momentum late in an election campaign that focused on the economy, balanced budgets and controlled spending.

"Tonight we have received a mandate from the people of British Columbia and I say to the citizens of British Columbia you have humbled us," Premier Christy Clark said in a speech accepting her party's victory.

"During this campaign people told us that they want to know we will be sharing the economic benefits of this province with everyone. They told us that they wanted us to balance economic and environmental issues. We will heed those concerns."

A majority victory was predicted by several networks including CTV News and CBC.

At the time of her speech, Clark was still in a tight race with the New Democrats (NDP) challenger for her seat and the winner had yet to be decided.

The Liberals' victory was characterized as shocking by analysts because the party had trailed the left-leaning NDP by about 20 percentage points heading into the campaign.

Provisional returns at about 11:45 p.m. Pacific Time (0645 GMT Wednesday) showed the Liberals had won, or were ahead, in 50 of the 85 seats in the provincial legislature, while the NDP were heading for 33 seats. Forty-three seats are needed for a majority.

The Liberals held 45 seats in the previous legislature, the NDP had 36, and four were held by independents.

The turning point in the campaign seemed to be Clark's ability to play up fears that the NDP would be poor stewards of Canada's fourth-largest provincial economy.

NDP leader Adrian Dix opposed both the proposed C$6 billion ($5.9 billion) Enbridge Inc Northern Gateway pipeline that would ship 525,000 barrels of oil sands crude per day from Alberta to the B.C. coast, and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP's plan to more than double the size of its Trans Mountain pipeline carrying crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to the coast.

Dix had promised to revoke an agreement the Liberals had signed under which British Columbia would recognize whatever federal decision was taken after an environmental review of the Northern Gateway pipeline, due at the end of this year.

British Columbia, which includes large parts of the Canadian Rockies as well as the rugged and often undeveloped Pacific coast, prides itself on its environmental policies. Greenpeace was founded there in 1971.

Green Party candidate Andrew Weaver won the party's first seat in a provincial legislature in Canada on Tuesday.

($1 = 1.0160 Canadian dollars)

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Pravin Char)

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Pipeline looms large as Canada's British Columbia votes

By Jennifer Kwan

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - The left-leaning New Democratic Party is leading the election race in Canada's Pacific province of British Columbia, raising new doubts about a pipeline that would take Canadian crude oil from neighboring Alberta to the coast for export to Asia.

The NDP, about 17 percent ahead of the ruling Liberals in recent opinion polls, promises a new review of the $6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline if it wins the May 14 election, a process that would likely bring new legal challenges and delays.

"Northern Gateway is not in our economic or environmental interest," NDP leader Adrian Dix told Reuters in an interview. "We obviously think this decision should be made in British Columbia."

The pipeline, proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc, is a key plank of efforts by the federal and Alberta governments to promote oil exports to Asia as a way to boost economic activity and create jobs. It would bring Canadian crude to the deepwater Pacific port of Kitimat for export to Asia.

Northern Gateway could also serve as a key link for export markets if the U.S. government denies TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to take Alberta oil sands crude to U.S. markets. President Barack Obama is under heavy pressure from environmentalists to block the project.

Environmental and aboriginal groups also oppose Northern Gateway, and a poll released in February by Insights West showed 61 percent of adults in the province oppose the project.

The Liberals, led by Christy Clark, are also unenthusiastic and say they would only let the pipeline be built if Alberta and Enbridge meet a series of fiscal and environmental conditions.

But the Liberals have already signed a so-called "equivalency agreement" with Ottawa, agreeing that any decision by the federal government following the existing review of the pipeline constitutes B.C.'s stance as well.

Dix said he planned to revoke that agreement and proceed with his own review.

Chris Tollefson, executive director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, said it was anyone's guess long that process might take.

Even with federal approval, the pipeline would likely require hundreds of provincial approvals, licenses and permits to proceed, he said.

REVIEWS UPON REVIEWS

A federally appointed review panel is already holding public hearings into Northern Gateway, seen as key to lifting returns for oil producers by allowing their supply to be sold in more lucrative international markets.

The panel is due to rule by the end of this year, although recent changes to environmental legislation make it easier for the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to overrule the panel's findings if it wants to do so.

Environmentalist groups and aboriginals are worried about the risk of spills, recently embodied in a television commercial that features footage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the late 1980s, played to Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence."

"Don't be silent. Vote for an oil-free coast," it says.

The Liberals, in power since 2001, are promising a tough campaign, regardless of their position in the polls, with a focus on balanced budgets and debt-reduction.

"British Columbia is at a crossroads, with two very different choices," Clark said in a statement that highlighted her party's efforts to control spending.

Both parties have proposed increases in corporate and personal income taxes, while the NDP says it will fund its spending promises by reintroducing a tax on banks and credit unions, as well as expanding the province's carbon tax base.

That's a red flag to the Vancouver Board of Trade.

"What I'd like is some inclusion in an NDP platform, if indeed they form government, some indication or some gesture that gives the green light for investment; a welcome mat for growing business and starting businesses and capital investment into the province of B.C.," said Iain Black, chief executive of the Vancouver Board of Trade and a former Liberal minister.

(Editing by Janet Guttsman and Bob Burgdorfer)

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Nigerian police: Expatriate kidnapped is British

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A British businessman was abducted Saturday in Lagos, a rare case of expatriate kidnapping in this West African nation's commercial center, Nigerian police said Tuesday.

Nigeria's police spokesman Frank Mba told The Associated Press that kidnappers probably followed their victim as he was leaving a nightclub in Victoria Island, one of Lagos' most exclusive and safest neighborhoods, at about 11 p.m.

Mba would not say if the kidnappers had demanded a ransom and did not give any other details.

The U.K. and U.S. governments had mentioned the kidnapping in separate security warnings issued Sunday, leaving out the victim's nationality.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in Nigeria, but most have occurred in its oil-rich southern delta. Lagos, a city of 17.5 million inhabitants, is in the country's southwest.

Mba said police are investigating, saying, "Lagos does not have a reputation for kidnappings and we want to keep it that way."

In recent years, Nigeria has had a spate of ransom kidnappings, which usually last for a few days and which have focused on the country's oil-rich region. However, Nigeria's north has also started to see politically-motivated kidnappings which typically last much longer. Kidnappings there have been linked to Islamic extremist groups rather than criminal gangs.

Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement Tuesday that "there is no indication of terrorist involvement at this stage." The statement did not confirm the victim's nationality or provide any new details.

The kidnapping comes a week after men claiming to be members of the radical Boko Haram Islamic network said in an unverified video that they would not free a kidnapped French family unless Nigeria and Cameroon freed all the group's members from their jails. The family was kidnapped on Feb. 19 in Cameroon, near the border with northern Nigeria.

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Falklands vote shows 99.8 pct want to stay British

STANLEY, Falkland Islands (AP) — An overwhelming 99.8 percent of Falkland Islands voters have backed keeping their government just the way it is: a British Overseas Territory.

Of the 1,517 valid votes cast, only 3 islanders voted "no" to the question: "Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?" One vote was somehow lost, officials said Monday.

The referendum was aimed at showing the world that the residents' self-determination must be considered in any discussion about the future of the remote South Atlantic islands that are claimed by both Britain and Argentina.

Elections officials reported a 92 percent turnout among the approximately 1,650 Falkland Islands voters eligible to cast ballots in the referendum. International election observer Juan Henao said the process was completely normal.

The islands' 2,563 residents did all they could ahead of the vote to show their sympathies, waving Union Jack flags and dressing up in red-white-and-blue.

"The referendum will show the world how we feel, that we are British and that we wish to remain British. We don't want to have nothing to do with Argentina, at all," islander Barry Nielson said as he voted.

The ballot didn't consider any alternatives, such as full independence or some sort of political relationship with Argentina. The Falkland Islands Government had said that if a majority said "no," they could explore alternatives in a second vote later.

The government barred from voting any visiting contractors or personnel from the sizeable British military deployment, as well as anyone who had not resided in the islands for the last 12 months, thus excluding several people with islander status who have chosen to live in Argentina.

Argentines consider the "Islas Malvinas" to be part of their national territory, taken from them by the British more than 180 years ago. One group at the iconic obelisk in Buenos Aires said Monday that it had gathered 100,000 signatures supporting Argentina's claim to the territory and the resource-rich seas that surrounds the archipelago.

The islands' community, which includes families that have worked the land for nine generations, is steeped in British culture, and British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in the tabloid The Sun on Sunday that "as long as the Falklanders want to stay British, we will always be there to protect them. They have my word on that."

But islanders have worried that British support is not guaranteed. They well remember that Britain was preparing to hand over the islands to Argentina before the military government in Buenos Aires occupied them in 1982, prompting a war that killed 907 people.

Defending them ever since by staffing a large military garrison 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) from London has been a costly sore point for Britons facing austerity measures. A Daily Mirror columnist complained about this on Monday, saying that "the result's not in doubt when the Islanders are voting for 'free money.' "

The political columnist, Kevin Maguire, wrote that the UK "spends 75 million euros ($112 million) on troops, missiles, aircraft and warships to guard their sheep lands," an annual military subsidy he calculated at 44,856 euros ($67,000) per island voter.

"It is glaringly obvious that a deal with neighbor Argentina remains the only sensible long-term answer to the Falklands-Malvinas," Maguire concluded.

Argentina maintained that the vote was illegal and that islanders — an "implanted people" — have no voice in a dispute that must be settled bilaterally.

The islanders hope the result will help them keep any deal off the table — and perhaps even persuade neutral nations such as the United States to come down on their side.

Gov. Nigel Haywood is Queen Elizabeth's representative in the islands, a mostly advisory role. The islanders directly elect members of a legislative assembly, and settle all their own affairs except for defense and foreign policy.

"I think countries when faced with the outcome of this will look at it and say ... 'we're in the 21st century, is it right that a country should want to try to take possession of these islands again against the freely expressed wishes of its inhabitants?' Haywood told The Associated Press. "That's just not how countries should act in the 21st century."

Two Falkland Islands lawmakers were already on their way to Washington, preparing to hand-deliver the results of an overwhelming "yes" vote to the U.S. Congress.

"Self-determination is what the United States was founded on and it is a fundamental right. It's a right that they recognize. So I would hope that they would listen to what's happening here today," said another member of the islands' legislative assembly, Dick Sawle.

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Skier killed in British Columbia avalanche

(Reuters) - A skier was killed in British Columbia on Friday after being caught in an avalanche in an out-of-bounds area near a mountain ski resort, Canadian police said.

The avalanche buried three skiers well outside of the controlled area boundaries of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. The resort is located in the southeastern part of the Canadian province.

Two of the skiers were rescued uninjured by others in the group, but the third was found dead. Police did not immediately identify the victim.

The statement said that police and search and rescue officials expected to recover the body of the deceased skier on Saturday.

Canada's CTV news said on its website that the skier was in a group of five or six men skiing on the back side of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort.

The Canadian Avalanche Center had upgraded the risk of slides to "high" in alpine and tree line mountain regions throughout most of British Columbia on Friday, CBC reported.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Additional reporting by Cynthia Johnston in Las Vegas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Skier killed in British Columbia avalanche

(Reuters) - A skier was killed in British Columbia on Friday after being caught in an avalanche in an out-of-bounds area near a mountain ski resort, Canadian police said.

The avalanche buried three skiers well outside of the controlled area boundaries of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. The resort is located in the southeastern part of the Canadian province.

Two of the skiers were rescued uninjured by others in the group, but the third was found dead. Police did not immediately identify the victim.

The statement said that police and search and rescue officials expected to recover the body of the deceased skier on Saturday.

Canada's CTV news said on its website that the skier was in a group of five or six men skiing on the back side of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort.

The Canadian Avalanche Center had upgraded the risk of slides to "high" in alpine and tree line mountain regions throughout most of British Columbia on Friday, CBC reported.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto; Additional reporting by Cynthia Johnston in Las Vegas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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