Saturday April 27, 2024 | SIDNEY, BC [Updated April 29, 2024]
Political news exclusive by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
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Editorial comment April 28, 2024: Today an email from Saanich-Gulf Islands NDP celebrating Colin Plant’s win as their candidate for the next federal election (~2025), derides the current MP regarding some past health issues. An unbecoming stance by organizers, and simply ‘not cool’. Candidate Colin Plant is expected to release a candidate-approved statement today.
A school teacher is aiming for federal heights.
Colin Plant — who is a teacher in the Saanich school district, as well as a District of Saanich Councillor and Chair of the Capital Regional District Board, repeated a story from his youth — that at age six he ‘wanted to be the government’ so he could help people.
He mentioned his youth acitivites in cub scouts where he learned that everyone “has a responsibility to volunteer, to give back to our community, and to leave things better than when we found them”.
He went on a high school trip to Ottawa to learn about our parliamentary structures and our legal system. “It was there, after one week, that I had the dream that one day I would like to represent my community and become an MP,” said Colin. That was 1989, when Lynn Hunter was the NDP MP (1988-1993) for what is now Saanich-Gulf Islands.
Today in his speech as one of two nominees to be the NDP candidate for the federal riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands Plant noted that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called him in October 2023 and invited him to put his name forward for the nomination.
About 150 people were in the room at a small church in downtown Sidney for today’s nomination meeting. The number of votes through secret ballot was not revealed, but Plant was announced as the winner. The other candidate was lawyer and long-time NDP activist Devon Black.
Attending today’s gathering were Alistair MacGregor, MP (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford), Randall Garrison, MP (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), and Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock.
Pre-vote speech by Alistair MacGregor:
Ahead of the vote, the MP of the neighbouring riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, Alistair MacGregor, revved up the crowd with a speech that took things a bit higher and farther than just ‘vote for the best candidate’.
MacGregor gave a long-range political view of how Canada has come to be where it is today with a serious cost of living crisis. MacGregor said that Canadians now express angst, anger, confusion and desperation.
MacGregor says that the ‘small and mighty’ NDP (now just 24 MPs in the House of Commons) are committed to helping people, that it’s NDP MPs who “understand social justice and will fight” for the things that need to change. “It’s not easy work, but it’s the right work,” said MacGregor, now a seasoned MP who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 and 2021.
The next federal election is currently on the Elections Canada calendar for October 20, 2025. That can change, but for now it still looks like Canadians will have another 18 months before heading to the polls to elect Canada’s 45th parliament.
‘The time is right’:
Colin Plant wants to win in that election. It will be a tough fight, up against the long-time incumbent Elizabeth May who is the Green Party leader and has held Saanich-Gulf Islands since 2011.
Today Plant said the time is right for him, after teaching as a career and serving on both municipal council and leading the regional CRD government.
He noted at the outset that the riding is “geographically large” and he took a quick show of hands as to who was there today from the riding, or beyond. He said that a nomination meeting is an important part of democracy.
Plant says that he works to make sure that the organizations he represents are operating effectively, efficiently and transparently. He says that in the past few months he has called over 380 people on the riding NDP membership list himself. He feels “aligned” with the views of NDP folks in the riding.
Those issues include affordability (which is “tearing at the fabric of our communities and leaving too many people struggling”), seniors living in poverty, childhood poverty, and a lack of housing. “These are not just buzzwords. They represent the lived realities of neighbours, friends, family and other Canadian citizens.”
“We need to build the right type of housing and we need to reinvest in social housing in a way that we haven’t seen since the end of World War II,” said Plant in his nomination pitch today. “The only party committed to appropriately the housing issue in Canada is our party the NDP.”
Vancouver Island punch:
If the NDP were to win Saanich-Gulf Islands in the next federal election (and return the six NDP MPs who currently hold the other six ridings on Vancouver Island) it would a produce an all-island stronghold for the NDP in all seven Vancouver Island ridings.
It would be fair to say that the ‘island voice’ is strong in the House of Commons by way of the NDP.
A better Canada is possible:
“There is a better Canada possible,” said Plant today.
In his speech to the assembled NDP faithful today, Plant highlighted some of his priorities should he be elected federally. That included “building the right type of housing” and addressing child poverty which he says “should not exist in a country as prosperous as ours”.
“Every child deserves access to nutritious food, a quality education, and a safe place to call home,” said Plant. “Seniors who have built our towns, our province and our country should not be left behind in their golden years,” he said. Seniors can age “with dignity and security” with access to affordable housing, health-care and support services, Plant outlined.
“The environment is our most important and precious inheritance,” said Plant. That’s with everyone in the room of course knowing that the current MP has built her career on battling for protection of the environment. “Yet we continue to exploit it at an alarming rate that is not sustainable. We must transition to sustainable practices, invest in renewable energy, increase conservation efforts, and develop green infrastructures,” he said today.
“I know how to govern and to make change happen,” said Plant, to a round of applause. He also got applause for saying that oil companies should no longer receive subsidies.
Upcoming campaign trail:
Door-knocking for the upcoming federal election is already on the minds of those who were in the room today. Unsuccessful contender Devon Black said in her acknowledgement speech that she would be out door-knocking in support of Colin Plant as the candidate next year.
“I’m not afraid of a tough fight,” she said in her pre-vote speech. “Communities, the country and the planet are strong when we take care of each other,” said Black. “This election will be pivotal,” she said.
A four-way race in Saanich-Gulf Islands — with a candidate for each of the four major parties (Liberal, Conservative, NDP, and Green), might dilute or split the strong vote that May has enjoyed in the last four federal elections (2011, 2015, 2019, and 2021).
There are seven federal ridings on Vancouver Island, with six of them currently held by the NDP.
===== RELATED:
- Elizabeth May gunning for 5th term in Saanich-Gulf Islands (April 24, 2024)
- NDP sees Saanich-Gulf Islands as ‘vulnerable’ (April 23, 2024)
- Colin Plant aiming for federal NDP heights (April 9, 2024)
- POLITICAL NEWS (Island Social Trends)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has lived Greater Victoria since 1985 — raising her four children in Fairfield/Oak Bay, then moving in 2007 to Sooke, then relocating to Langford in 2017.
Ms Brooke’s series of news publications that started in 2008 has included a focus on following community growth and development in the west shore and south Vancouver Island regon.
Island Social Trends was launched online at IslandSocialTrends.ca in 2020, having morphed from the previous publication West Shore Voice News (weekly print/PDF 2014-2020) and Sooke Voice News (weekly print 2011-2013) before that. During 2008-2010 it was the colour quarterly MapleLine Magazine that rolled off Mary’s pen.
Since doing daily coverage of COVID news in 2020-2002, Ms Brooke has reported along with the BC Legislative Press Gallery with a more provincial angle on the news, always with a socioeconomic lens and a view to analyzing the impacts of political decisions.
In 2022 Ms Brooke ran for school trustee in the west shore (SD62). In 2023 she was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation journalism award that recognizes professional women journalists for their contribution to community through journalism. In 2024 Ms Brooke has launched Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society to guide decision-makers in the creation of food-growing spaces in urban communities.