Wednesday September 25, 2024 | SAANICH, BC
BC ELECTION CAMPAIGN DAY 5 of 28
Political feature interview by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Your 28-day voter’s guide for BC Election 2024
Last night about 120 people came out to hear about BC political issues at an all candidates meeting in Victoria-Swan Lake.
Held in the auditorium at Reynolds Secondary School, the two-hour formal question-and-answer period extended long past that, as keen voters chatted one-on-one with the two candidates.
Attending for the BC NDP was Nina Krieger and attending for the BC Greens was Christina Winter. BC Conservative candidate Tim Taylor was — at the last minute apparently — unable to attend.
It was a robust two hours of focused questions and detailed answers. Both candidates responded without notes — they know their stuff!
Krieger is new to politics but held her own with nearly every answer delivering how the BC NDP has had to clean up the deficiencies or missteps of the previous BC Liberal government (which had governed up to mid-2017). The BC NDP has held government since 2017 — first under Premier John Horgan and since 2022 under Premier David Eby.
Fun fact… former Premier John Horgan attended high school at Reynolds Secondary School in Saanich!
The event was hosted by the Quadra Cedar Hill Community Association (QCHCA), which seemed to put a lot of effort into preparing a long list of detailed questions. That somewhat tired out the audience (and perhaps the candidates) before getting to live questions from the audience.
The moderators were QCHCA President Susan Haddon and Past-President John Schmuck who took turns with delivering prepared questions.
Top issues:
The top issues determined by the moderators — and certainly confirmed in responses by Krieger and Winter — were housing and health-care.
Consensus in the room was that these fundamental issues — as well as overall affordability — need serious attention in BC. As well, environment and climate change response were top of mind, especially for Winter as the Green candidate.
Housing:
Kreiger mentioned the gain of 20,000 homes to the market after the BC NDP through legislation forced short-term rental owners to restore those properties to long-term rentals or as units for sale to prospective homeowners. She also itemized the recently announced goal of boosting BC’s housing supply by 300,000 homes over the next 10 years (that’s up from the 114,000 homes promised by Horgan’s government in 2018).
Winter noted that every generation is struggling with housing issues. “It’s a long term problem in Victoria,” the BC Green candidate said. She said the BC Greens are looking for vacancy control. Winter aid that housing development should be a “good investment for government and non-profits as well”.
Health-care:
Winter at first reminded the audience that “primary care is the way we access our health-care system” and that “health-care is struggling” but that the problems are solvable. She mentioned the BC Green’s support for The Dogwood Model that delivers community-based health-care.
Krieger noted the challenge of mental health issues in today’s society. She feels the local Gorge Urgent Primary Care Centre is “progressive”.
Education:
The question from the moderator was whether school boards should have to produce balanced budgets. In that present scenario, it often means that budget cuts produce shortfalls in classroom support including the dropping of certain programs or fewer specialized instruction areas (e.g. music rooms, science labs).
Krieger comes from a family of teachers. She highlights youth as “the citizens of tomorrow” and that “advanced social cohesion” is the desired goal through education for a “diversity of learners”. She highlighted that the current government has done seismic upgrades at several schools.
Winter said that British Columbian youth need “a top tier education”, noting that education is the top plank of the BC Greens 2024 campaign platform. She mentioned the recently announced platform promise that BC Greens would establish a Digital Literacy Secretariat to boost digital literacy in schools, including providing a laptop to every student in Grade 6 and Grade 10, to help facilitate the digital component of learning. She stressed that school boards now focus on monetizing their assets (e.g. renting out rooms and facilities) as a way to help get enough money for classroom operations.
Food security:
The question about food security was about how locally-grown food supply can be increased on Vancouver Island.
Winter said it’s not the best model to “rely on charity and scraping together food” as systemic issues, referring to the operations of food banks and distribution networks that collect food from grocery store unsale-ables. She pointed out how farmers need the assurance of water as well as land. Cold storage in communities is needed for support during disasters, said Winter.
Krieger pointed out how BC schools are getting organized to deliver more meals to students within the school system.
Transportation and public safety:
The moderator asked about transit and street disorder, which lately seem to have gone hand in hand.
Krieger said it’s important to get at the root causes of poverty where that leads to mental illness and violence. She points out that the BC government recently made public transit free for youth under age 12, adding that a BC Conservative government would likely slash that.
Winter said that public transit needs to be made ‘fast, frequent and free’ with some details about the balance of investment for the various modalities (e.g. highways, pedestrian pathways, and public transit).
Homelessness:
Homelessness is a tough issue for everyone in the community. The host’s question was about how to deal with it.
Krieger mentioned addressing the root causes, addiction and providing mental health supports. Winter pointed out that “keeping people in poverty” is part of the problem and that rent subsidy levels are not high enough.
Environment:
Environment is ‘the Green issue’, which Christina Winter was glad to address. She talked a bit about flood mitigation and how the local Swan Lake Nature Reserve and Bowker Creek should be protected.
For the NDP perspective, Nina Krieger talked about the importance of urban tree canopy as communities densify. Cities need to provide more housing but also restore natural areas.
The Victoria-Swan Lake riding:
The Victoria-Swan Lake riding encompasses a wide range of socioeconomic households and many businesses.
Encompassing part of both Victoria and Saanich, the riding edges the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding along Bay Street, the Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding along Shelbourne Street, the Saanich South riding along McKenzie Avenue, borders the Trans Canada Highway and also Esquimalt along Gorge Road and reaches as far as View Royal on the west.
The riding has been held by BC NDP MLA Rob Fleming during 2005 to 2024. Fleming is not seeking re-election, saying it’s time for new blood to take leadership in the area.
===== RELATED:
- Digital Literacy Secretariat would be set up by BC Greens (September 3, 2024)
- Rob Fleming leaves open game for Victoria-Swan Lake in election 2024 (August 18, 2024)
- Housing is a top election issue says Eby (July 22, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: BC NDP | BC GREENS | BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION 2024 | POLITICS | LIVING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
- CAMPAIGN ITINERARIES & FEATURE ARTICLES: Your 28-day voter’s guide for BC Election 2024