Saturday February 14, 2026 | TUMBLER RIDGE, BC [Posted at 10:52 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends [VICTORIA, BC]
“Canada is with you,” said Governor General Mary Simon at a vigil in Tumbler Ridge, BC on Friday evening.
Several federal and provincial elected representatives were on the ground in the small northern BC mining town on Friday February 13 to pay tribute to the victims and families impacted by a mass shooting on February 10 that took nine lives.
It’s a small community of about 2,400 people. Normally a mass influx of leaders with their security teams and news media would not be imposed on a small town so soon. But the Tumbler Ridge event seems different.
The shock of the Tumbler Ridge shooting has gripped the attention of people across BC, across Canada and around the world.
Prime Minister Mark Carney invited the leaders of the other political parties to join him on a chartered flight to the remote town. They arrived mid-day on Friday and laid flowers in memory of the victims.
After nightfall there was a vigil and remarks were delivered by various elected and community leaders.
Governor General Mary Simon:
Governor General Mary Simon delivered condolences on behalf of all Canadians.
“As parents we watch our children grow, learning and experiencing the world through their eyes. We find hope in their innocence and imagine a future where they will thrive and make their mark in the world. We are drawn to the irresistible brightness of their spirit.”
“We cannot imagine life without that brilliant spark in it. So when the unthinkable becomes real, we are plunged into shadow, we still seek that light. With all their brilliance, your children made a lasting mark on this community,” said Simon.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks:
Prime Minister Carney opened his remarks by saying that he and all the leaders of the federal parties wanted to be there in person. “We wanted you to hear that Canadians are with you, and we will always be with you. … “We listened, and we felt what’s always defined this community… people caring for each other… that is who you are.”
He commended people for watching out for each other, and thanked first responders. People watching out for each other.
“This is grace,” said Carney. “It’s what we receive from each other, open hearts when the world falls apart,” the prime minister said. “Tumbler Ridge is full of grace this evening.”
“We don’t just give grace, we receive grace,” said Carney.
Carney reongnized each of the slain, including the mother and half-brother of the killer “for they too deserve to be mourned”.
Carney also spoke about a woman who was shot in the Montreal Massacre and later became an engineer, a mother, and a Member of Parliament. “This week she spoke with tears about your children,” said Carney about Nathalie Provost, MP (Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville). “It’s possible to endure the unendurable, the horror of what happened doesn’t have to be the end of what’s to come.”
Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre:
“We are a nation with a broken heart,” said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievere to open his remarks. “But we are also a nation with open arms.”
“You have witnessed an incredible horror that will be indelibly marked on your memories.”
“There is nothing ordinary about the people in this town. You are all extraordinary,” said Poilievre, after thanking teachers and students who protected students in the school, as well as police and other first responders.
“For every time you think of me, I’m right here in your heart,” Poilievre concluded, from a poem that he read aloud.
BC Lieutenant Governor Wendy Cocchia:
“You do not grieve alone,” said BC Lieutenant Governor Wendy Cocchia at the microphone. Grief is not something that passes quickly. It’s painful and it’s a slow process. It moves at its own pace. But please, when you feel it, do not retreat and do not withdraw. Stay engaged and please stay connected with one another,” she said to the local crowd.
She said that the entire province and country mourns alongside Tumbler Ridge.
“We’re here for you for as long as it takes. And it will take a long time,” Cocchia said in conclusion.
BC Premier David Eby:
Friday night was the eve of Family Day weekend in BC,
BC Premier David Eby noted at the beginning of his remarks that he was joined at the vigil by the ministers of who ministries that will have work to do as related to the components of the Tumbler Ridge incident — health and education. He was accompanied by Health Minister Josie Osborne and Education and Child Care Minister Lisa Beare.
As well, the Leader of the Official Opposition of BC, Trevor Halford, was there as well as the BC Green House Leader, Jeremy Valeriote.
For Eby it was underlining “the unity of our response as a provincial government across partisan lines”.
Eby recounted some stories he’d heard from a teacher and his students, that demonstrate “the seeds of what will ensure Tumbler Ridge’s recovery, ultimately from this horrific moment that we’re in.
The older students “put aside their own fear” to make sure the younger kids were looked after, said Eby about the experience in a science classroom that included giving first aid to an injured student who was dragged in from the hall.
“What they did is emblematic of this town,” the premier said of the students and the teacher. “They did what they were trained and practiced to do to save lives.”
“”The future of Tumbler Ridge is in that school,” said Eby, as to the youth being educated there. But he promised that no one would have to return to that physical premises if they didn’t want to.
Options for furthering their education were not outlined, but it could include things like a new space set up at the community centre. Something will be worked out with the school board (School District 59), said Eby.
Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka:
“The pain we carry is real, the loss is profound,” said Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka. Time and patience for grief will include caring for one another, he said in the same thread of what all the other speakers said on Friday evening outside in the dark.
“Healing is something that we will do together,” the mayor said. “Tumbler Ridge is shaken but we are not broken. We will carry this loss together.”
NDP Leader Don Davies:
Earlier in the day, NDP Leader Don Davies in an interview on CBC called the Tumbler Ridge a “senseless horrific tragedy”. He had talked to the grandparents of one of the children who had been killed, and to two students who were in the building when the shooting happened.
He feels the students are struggling and will need “acute help”. He wants mental health support for the students, both now “and in that crucial period a couple of weeks from now, a month or two from now, when people move one but they’re still dealing with the aftermath, and then long-term” said Davies.
The Lapu Lapu tragedy happened in Davies’ riding (Vancouver Kingsway), so he stated being familiar with the stages of grief that happen.
“There seems to be something so unbelievably unjust about that,” said Davies, referring to the ages of the children and that they were killed in their school.
He hopes that “when the time comes” that the five leaders (parties) can “start addressing some of the things so that we can try to ensure that this doesn’t happen to another community”, said Don Davies.
“We never want this kind of thing to become normalized in our country. The five parties coming together today in solidarity to stand together to say we’re going to share this grief and pain and stand together in a strong resilient way to show that this isn’t the Canada that we want. That’s a really important political and social message to send at this time,” said Davies.
Davies won’t be the NDP Leader much longer; there is an NDP Leader’s race underway, with a new leader set to be chosen by March 29.
Green Leader Elizabeth May:
“There’s no other place for us to be, but together,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in a live interview with CBC from Tumbler Ridge.
===== RELATED:
- NEWS SECTIONS: HEALTH | BC POLITICS | EDUCATION | 45th PARLIAMENT OF CANADA | TRAUMA & HEALING
- Prime Minister Carney to visit Tumbler Ridge on Friday (February 12, 2026)
- Day-after: Premier Eby addresses media from Tumbler Ridge (February 11, 2026)
- Federal ministers head to Tumbler Ridge with BC Premier & Safety Minister (February 11, 2026)
- Tributes in the House of Commons about Tumbler Ridge shooting (February 11, 2026)
- BC Premier Eby on the Tumbler Ridge shooting (February 10, 2026)
- Prime Minister Carney’s statement on the shooting in Tumbler Ridge (February 10, 2026)
- Ten dead in Tumbler Ridge shooting incident (February 10, 2026)
- Tumbler Ridge elementary & secondary schools on active shooter lockdown (February 10, 2026)