Energy Minister Adrian Dix has a stirring set-piece speech — available on demand — about how former premier W.A.C. Bennett created B.C. Hydro and how it drove B.C. into the 20th century with a building program that set the stage for all the good things in life, and how we need to do that all over again.

Bennett also created a fear campaign through multiple elections based on “the socialist hordes are at the gates!” which makes Dix’s rallying cry a bit ironic.

Because the hordes have been running the show for eight years now, and it turns out the fabled old builder — who was also cited as the inspiration for completing the Site C dam — is their role model for energy projects.

This week, the NDP government took another big step toward a new energy megaproject. The North Coast Transmission Line is about further high-voltage electrification of the northwest with a view to spurring hundreds of billions of dollars worth of industrial development that will transform that remote but vital corner of B.C.

The new lines have been in the works for a while, and a bill introduced this week........

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