Saturday April 12, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC
Campaign profile 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 is keen to discuss issues with local voters. That includes at Poncho’s Cafe at 115-755 Goldstream Avenue in Langford, coming up tomorrow, Friday April 18.
MacGregor will be at the popular local coffee shop in downtown Langford between 9:30 am and 11:30 am on Friday.
MacGregor was first elected in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford in 2015, then again in 2019 and 2021.
In this 2025 election campaign, MacGregor is now seasoned as to how campaigns roll out. But each day is a fresh opportunity to engage with voters that he meets in community.
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.
MacGregor devotes himself entirely to his work as an MP. “Being an MP is not a phone-in job,” he told Island Social Trends last 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.
Bill C-277 on Brain Injury:
If re-elected, he is committed to once again presenting his Bill C-277 for a National Strategy on Brain Injury.
In the previous parliament the Bill 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 MPs were in BC — and of those, six have been on Vancouver Island since 2011.
The NDP hope to hold onto Cowichan-Malahat, Victoria, Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Courtenay-Alberni, and North Island-Powell River. They hope the can also win in Saanich-Gulf Islands (held by the Greens since 2011), making it seven out of seven.
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 for the benefit of everyday Canadians.
The NDP hopes to retain 24 seats and add more. In recent days, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has been reinforcing the importance of having as many NDP MPs in the House of Commons as possible — as a counterpoint to which other party forms government.
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 perhaps haven’t heard the benefits of maintaining a strong NDP in the workings of parliament.
===== RELATED:
- NDP will defend health care in next parliament, says Singh (April 10, 2025)
- 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)
- NEWS SECTIONS: POLITICS | FEDERAL NDP | CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION 2025 | VANCOUVER ISLAND