Wednesday October 23, 2019 ~ ESQUIMALT-SAANICH-SOOKE
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
On Monday night October 21, Green Party candidate David Merner completed his second round of vying to become the member of parliament for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.
And it was of course with great disappointment for Merner and his team to see second-place results in the federal election results for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke (18,135 votes / 26.3%). That essentially showed a repeat performance of the 2015 race in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke (also coming in second behind the NDP incumbent victor Randall Garrison — though in 2015 Merner was a Liberal candidate).
Merner notes that the Liberals came in fourth in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke this time, saying the performance of the federal Liberal government over the past four years had a lot to do with that.
Like other Green candidates have said since Monday night’s results in which the Green Party saw an increase to three MPs heading to Ottawa (instead of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May alone, plus Paul Manly for Nanaimo-Ladysmith on board since earlier in 2019) — the Green Party now has a higher profile. That is a solid political achievement, including their first elected member beyond Vancouver Island (in New Brunswick on the other coast!)
“Early in the evening it was hard to tell what was going to happen,” said Merner about election results rolling in for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke after 7 pm. Early results from the voting stations that reported first showed the Liberal candidate in the lead, then for a while it looked good for Merner and the Conservative candidate. As the evening wore on, the island’s stalwart force of the NDP came through for Garrison.
As did all the candidates, Merner heard about affordability issues on the campaign trail. “People are stretched and can’t stretch any further,” he observes. Not just financially but also in terms of time and energy for fighting for very big things like climate change action. But overall, Merner says that people “aren’t getting that this is serious”. Perhaps it’s human nature to not want to look at a growing problem that instinctively feels insurmountable. “Water heating up slowly…”, says Merner, referring to the long-time metaphor for not noticing how a situation is increasingly becoming worse because it happens slowly and almost imperceptibly over time (ref: the boiling frog fable).
The geographically large Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke electoral district includes Esquimalt, View Royal, Colwood, Metchosin, Sooke and Juan de Fuca out to Jordan River.
Results of the full race in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke on October 21 were: Randall Garrison, NDP incumbent with 23,516 votes (34.1%)- re-elected; David Merner, Green with 18,135 votes (26.3%); Randall Pewarchuk, Conservative with 13,054 votes (18.9%); Jamie Hammond, Liberal with 12,342 votes (17.9%); Jeremy Gustafson, PPC with 1,291 votes (1.9%); Josh Steffler; Libertarian with 284 votes (0.4%); Tyson Strandlund, Communist with 107 votes (9.2%); Louis Lesosky, Independent with 98 votes (0.1%); and Philip Ney, Independent with 81 votes (0.1%).
Merner is concerned about “the consequences for younger people” with not enough being done on the climate action file. Out around communities at thousands of doorsteps since December 2018 for this campaign, Merner heard that youth — as well as their parents and grandparents — are very worried about the future of the planet.
“The Green party now has so many young people inspired, and for that generation in his camp in particular it was hard to lose, he said today, with results still feeling raw just two days after October 21 election. “It was hard to lose an election, but it was also hard to see sad and worried young people,” said Merner in an interview with West Shore Voice News.
The proudest moment of the campaign for Merner was witnessing Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s unflagging enthusiasm in action. “She was sign-waving at 5 pm out on the roads on the eve of the election, and on election day at 3 pm in rush hour traffic she was waving signs in the rain,” Merner recalls. “It’s astonishing how much energy she has.”
After this, Merner thinks he may switch to something more physical in his community service, such as getting involved in community efforts for habitat restoration. “Tree planting is massively needed,” he said today. “It would be fun to get that going in our community. There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Merner.
A lawyer by profession, Merner is fully retired from his government career and sees new horizons in the green world. “It’s time to plant trees and restore riverbanks and streams,” he concludes about his future in community service.
====== Election Night Results (October 21, 2019) | Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke
There were 234 polls in the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding for this election. Voter turnout on October 21 (including Advance Poll numbers) was 69,003 of 99,285 voters on the list (69.5%) which does not include electors who registered on election day. The population of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke is 120,834 (2016 census).