Sunday April 6, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC
Political Analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Alistair MacGregor is the incumbent NDP candidate in the south Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford (CML).
He was first elected in 2015, then again in 2019 and 2021. In the 2025 election campaign he is seasoned as to how campaigns roll out but he is fresh and new each day for the voters that he meets at the door-step and in community.
MacGregor held a meet-and-greet at a local Langford coffee shop this weekend. He engages intently with each person who asks him questions or has comments to make.
After 10 years being the MP, MacGregor is well connected with other leaders and decision-makers in Ottawa. This is helpful for getting work done at the committee level — which is a key area of moving issues and programs along for Canadians. He says he has friends among MPs who are Conservatives and Liberals. He practices the concept of ‘working across the aisle’ if it means getting legislative improvements for everyday folks in his riding and across the country.
He devotes himself entirely to his work as an MP. “Being an MP is not a phone-in job,” he told Island Social Trends this week. It means showing up for all the aspects of serving in Ottawa and in community, especially when the riding is so far from the action that goes on in the House of Commons.
He has committed to revisiting his Bill C-277 Brain Injury Bill that passed unanimously in the House in June 2024 but didn’t get to the Senate due to the stagnation of Parliament in the fall of 2024.
NDP in BC:
The NDP had 24 seats at dissolution. Half of those were in BC — and of those, six have been on Vancouver Island since 2011. As life goes, things do change over time, but the NDP will continue to declare and validate their impact in working with the minority government of the day.
They hope to retain 24 seats and add more. MacGregor doesn’t really give too much credence to opinion polls during election campaigns. He knows his supporter base and he works hard to meet others who he feels haven’t heard the benefits of maintaining a strong NDP in the workings of parliament.
NDP wins for people:
Without the NDP pushing things along, Canadians would now not have the new dental care program or a continued rollout of government-subsidized child care and the school food program. During the pandemic it was the NDP that pushed for CERB to provide a livable income base instead of the what the Liberals first proposed.
As MacGregor said at his Christmas open house in Langford in December 2024, there is now “a radically transformed Canada” because of what the NDP have accomplished by using the parliamentary system to the advantage of Canadians.
Now the NDP have initiated a conversation with a new paradigm for how the Employment Insurance (EI) program should work, i.e. to cover all working people instead of only the 40% that are currently covered. Without the NDP highlighting how workers come in all forms and situations (e.g. part-time, gig work, self employment, consultants and contractors) the EI program will likely remain stuck in its 1960s roots to cover only workers in the mainstream corporate model.
“It makes me mad that my community members are suffering because we have this level of indifference that has lasted decade, after decade after decade,” said MacGregor to a fully attentive audience in December.
The 2025 NDP campaign is strongly focused on supporting workers. At a media event on March 31 all the candidates showed up in casual wear as part of the messaging that they are with the working people.
Systemic change requires the NDP:
The stuff that keeps him going are those improvements for Canadians. “It is a systemic change. We have to have this ability to imagine a Canada that is better, one where we’re going to put people before profit. I know that’s a much-used slogan but we’ve got to start living that. We’ve got to start sending politicians to Ottawa who are actually going to fight for that,” said MacGregor pointing out the failings of Liberal and Conservative governments that have left so many people behind.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did try to change the direction of the tide a bit, by working with the NDP’s ideas. But clearly the wave of support for Mark Carney who follows a middle-of-the-road path has reinvigorated the Liberals behind him in this spring 2025 election. In that respect, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is right, as in the Liberals being the same despite their leader.
The NDP — especially experienced proven NDP candidates — are a strong choice for voters who want to see continued progress for the social safety net in this country. It was the NDP who brought in universal health care decades ago, by which everyone benefits.
Engaging on issues, meeting people where they are:
MacGregor lives in Duncan and does a lot of his campaigning in Cowichan; three evening-time All Candidates Meetings will be held on that side of the riding, coming up April 15 in Chemanius, April 16 in Lake Cowichan, and April 23 in Brentwood/Shawnigan.
He will participate as the incumbent MP at the Vimy Ridge event at the Langford cenotaph (Goldstream Ave at Veterans Memorial Pkwy) on April 9.
But MacGregor is also getting around Langford to chat with people in neighbourhoods. His next casual coffee shop meet-and-greet in Langford is on Friday April 18 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am at Poncho’s Cafe at 115-755 Goldstream Ave. Everyone welcome.
A recent mail drop saw a flyer go to every home in Langford about Alistair MacGregor and the NDP are “fighting to make a difference for you” including:
- Stop American-style health care that costs you.
- Lower your bills with grocery price caps.
- A Canada strong and free from Donald Trump.
===== RELATED:
- NDP rolls out “Investing in Canada” economic strategies (April 3, 2025)
- Second federal campaign visit by NDP Leader on south Vancouver Island (March 31, 2025)
- This is a radically transformed Canada says Alistair MacGregor MP (December 18, 2024)
- MacGregor’s brain injury Bill C-277 passed unanimously (June 23, 2024)
- Alistair MacGregor: what the NDP did for Canadians in 2023 (December 31, 2023)
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