Sunday, September 15, 2019 ~ ESQUIMALT
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
About 100 people showed up for the official launch of Randall Garrison’s campaign office yesterday afternoon, Saturday September 14, in Esquimalt.
Introduced and lauded by former local long-time MLA Maurine Karagianis and current NDP MLA Mitzi Dean, Garrison reminded his core base of supporters about his commitment to issues that matter to constituents in the federal riding of Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke that he has held for eight years (first elected in 2011, then again in 2015).
In addition to the national campaign issues of clean tech, economic/job equality, Pharmacare, better national housing strategies, and interest-free student loans and free post-secondary tuition, Garrison highlighted what he wants to make progress with back in Ottawa after the October 21 election.
Garrison had been working on getting self-harm out of the military code of conduct for discipline. He also wants to work on getting better access to HIV testing and treatment. Apparently experts say that HIV can be eliminated by 2030 but in Canada rates are going up not down. His third priority is the fate of the Southern Resident Killer Whales … more fish in the water, taking the industrial pollutants and industrial traffic out of their habitat. It’s not telling fishermen to stop taking fish out of the water. He commended the fishermen who work on salmon restoration in Sooke.
An introduction by Mitzi Dean at the catered event included remarks about Randall working in a spirit of service. “His values around human rights are absolutely true to his core. He has introduced legislation to amend Canadian human rights act and the criminal code. He fights for resources for our troops and visits them overseas to make sure they’re supported. He’s been strong on environmentalism, has been against the Trans Mountain Pipeline, tried to get legislation to protect the Goldstream River and also to protect the Southern Resident Killer Whales.”
Randall in a third term as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons has those personal political priorities with which he would like to see accomplished: “I want to go back, I want to get some more things done,” he told the crowd.
“When you’re out door knocking, let’s remember all the hard work Randall has done,” said Dean.
But it was the fear-factor that was injected by Karagianis who is serving as Garrison’s financial agent for this campaign. “They’re coming for Randall,” she pitched out to the crowd. And that was followed by a fundraising pitch to the working-person crowd, asking people to remember to donate out of their next paycheque.
Karagianis explained that normally other parties will not work so hard to try and unseat a two-time incumbent, and she called this election “an anomaly” for the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding. “She said the other parties “are sending the big guns”. She said she is “very surprised by the kind of candidates we are seeing from the Liberals, Conservatives and the Greens”.
“They have come for us before and we have fought them off,” said the long-time NDP campaigner, with Karagianis then giving a bit of political analysis on the national level: “This is a very important election … this is our time in Ottawa. We stand a very good chance of helping to form a minority government. Realistically and pragmatically we see a very close race between the Conservatives and the Liberals. If Trudeau forms a minority government, there is only one party he is going to turn to and that is the NDP. If we are going to be the deal-makers and deal-breakers for a Trudeau government, then we have this opportunity. It’s a very important election. It’s an exciting time,” she pitched to a fired up crowd.
Garrison noted that Liberal leader Justin Trudeau came to the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding on Day 2 of the 40-day campaign (similar to an early-in-the-campaign visit in 2015) and that the Green campaign is spending their national campaign money in the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding where the Green candidate is David Merner (who ran as Liberal in 2015 and pulled off a close second to Randall); many of Merner’s signs and ads featured Green Leader Elizabeth May.
“As NDP, we keep renewing ourselves. We have to work hard to reach those people who are wondering what to do this time,” Garrison said, as a way for volunteers to respond to undecided voters. He also said the national media seems to be running a thread that paints the national NDP party as “dead, the leader’s no good, the party has no money”. But that when people hear NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on the campaign trail “it’s a different story”. Indeed, the general pundit consensus was that Singh ‘won’ the first leader’s debate on Thursday night September 12 by being articulate, well informed and convincing.
“Jagmeet loves campaigning, and he’s a really good campaigner,” said Garrison. “We’re going to do very well.”
“The Conservatives are trying to make us think they’re New Democrats, because they’re talking about affordability. The Liberals are also talking about affordability; but what do they mean? But the NDP platform sets out the priorities of ordinary working people and seniors,” said Garrison.
“When we can get access to prescription drugs for everyone it’s a saving to the economy, families and businesses, it’s not a cost. It means some money up front to get it going. But it’s not a cost to society. And it means better health,” Garrison explained to the crowd. “Whatever the outcome of this election that’s what the NDP’s going to be putting on the table.”
“Action on climate change that means you don’t pay with your job or your house. We won’t get where we need to go if we don’t take everybody with us, and that’s the key to tackling climate change, social justice and equality all wrapped up together. If you want people to take on a wartime mentality (about climate change), you can’t leave them out,” said Garrison in his speech.
Laurel Collins who is a Victoria city councillor and the NDP candidate for Victoria attended the casual office-opening event, as well as Sabina Singh who is the NDP candidate for Saanich-Gulf Islands. Attending by invitation was Colwood Mayor Rob Martin. Sooke Mayor Maja Tait sent her regrets.
Garrison’s campaign office for this 40-day federal campaign is at 829-C Admirals Road in Esquimalt, near the dock yards.
The large Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding with a population of about 120,000 includes Esquimalt, Colwood, the north-Quadra/Tillicum area of Saanich, Metchosin, Sooke and Juan de Fuca up to Jordan River.
The riding name was renewed ahead of the 2015 to include Sooke in the name, due to the persistence of Garrison in that effort.
An All Candidates Forum for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke candidates will be held at Pearson College on Wednesday September 18 (doors open 7 pm).