Thursday March 13, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
A packed room welcomed NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh as he arrived at the new South Vancouver Island NDP campaign office on Tuesday evening.
Outdoors the weather was rainy but indoors the room of NDP loyalists was hopeful and revved up for the success of three candidates that will call that office home for the next few months.
One incumbent, two new:
- Laurel Collins will be seeking her third term as the Member of Parliament for Victoria (elected 2019 and re-elected in 2021).
- Colin Plant is currently a District of Saanich municipal councillor and he chairs the Capital Regional District (CRD) board. His NDP candidacy was confirmed in April 2024.
- Maja Tait is currently mayor of the District of Sooke. She announced her federal NDP candidacy in August 2023.
The office at 2622 Douglas Street in downtown Victoria will function as a campaign headquarters for three south Vancouver Island candidates:
- Laurel Collins (Victoria) – includes Victoria, Oak Bay and parts of Saanich
- Colin Plant (Saanich-Gulf Islands) – this riding includes Sidney, Central Saanich, North Saanich and the Gulf Islands
- Maja Tait (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) – this riding includes Esquimalt, Sooke, View Royal, Colwood, Metchosin and Juan de Fuca, and parts of Saanich that border the western communities
Joining the NDP family:
Maja Tait told the folks gathered that she is “very proud to be part of the NDP family”… “it’s like I’ve returned home”. She’s been in local politics since 2008 in a non-partisan way as is required at the local level to work across party lines. “So it was a shift for me to become part of a party,” said Tait.
“But then, it’s like, where have you been? I’ve always been there, I just didn’t walk through the door,” said Tait about her move into the NDP as the candidate for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.
She thanked Singh and Collins for being a “strong inspiring light”. Tait has a nine-year-old and she’s “a hockey mom”.
“The New Deomcrats are there in the case that we fall,” said Tait. She pointed out that municipalities need support from other levels of government (provincial and federal); she has served as the President of the Union of BC Municipalities and has participated at Federal of Canadian Municipalities conventions. ‘The federal government needs to be there with us,” said Tait.
She drew on the momentum of “elbows up Canada”, demonstrating her energy to rev up a room.
Helping people through government:
Well known in the south Vancouver Island region as a teacher and a Saanich councillor as well as chair of the Capital Regional District board, Colin Plant He grew up on a dairy farm in Saanich.
He tells the story that as a child he said “I want to be the government”. He says that means he’s always wanted to help people.
“The NDP for me is a choice. I was asked to run by other parties,” said Plant. He laid bare that he’s been a member of the provincial NDP for 20 years, spurred to that choice “because of what Ms Clark did to teachers’ contracts”. “My heart lies with the NDP,” said Plant to a receptive audience. “We are the party of people.”
He was asked by Jagmeet Singh to run in Saanich-Gulf Islands “because I think we can win”. The riding was last held by the NDP during 1988 to 1993. The current MP is Elizabeth May who has held the riding for the Green Party since 2011.
“Greens need to come to the NDP to make a difference,” says Plant. “There is a receptivity to the NDP in Saanich-Gulf Islands,” says Plant, as he has discovered when out door-knocking for this campaign. He mentions the new dental plan for seniors in that regard and the push for new approaches to housing such as cooperatives.
He feels that people in Canada have “become desensitized to the message that there is something inappropriate about taking care of each other, that it’s somehow wrong to say we have social values”, said Plant.
“You expect your leaders to speak with kindness and to speak diplomatically,” said Plant, in the context of what the world is witnessing out of the US.
“If you stand up for people you will never be alone,” says Plant. “We are the party that is going to be the most effective in responding to Mr Trump and his lunacy, because we stand up for people. “Mr Carney and Mr Poilievre are not really in it for people,” articulating that they come from a perspective “rich know best”. He said that Jagmeet Singh “is one of us”, coming to a local office opening.
Laurel Collins on the re-election campaign trail:
Laurel Collins as the MP for Victoria since 2019 has been part of the small number of NDP MPs who have pushed for significant change for Canadians in the House of Commons. Presently there are 24 NDP MPs (half of which are from BC, and six of whom have seats on Vancouver Island).
She opened her remarks by pitching to volunteers in the room for their support in door-knocking and other campaign supports.
Canadians should be able to build a good life but those values are under attack, Collins told the room. Canadian sovereignty and the economy are under attack.
As a community “we need to push back against those threats”, said Collins on Tuesday evening. A range of crises are happening in Canada, including housing, climate and toxic drugs that need to be met “with the urgency and scale that is needed”.
Collins spoke highly of being on Jagmeet Singh’s leadership team and attending weekly NDP caucus meetings where the party worked on dental care, pharmarcare, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, doubling the GST credit and delivering supports to people during the pandemic.
Leader’s remarks:
“We’re never going to be the 51st state, not now not ever,” said Jagmeet Singh. “We’ve got to fight back, it’s a serious fight,” he said regarding the pressures from the United States to annex Canada.
Singh said that both Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre are serving corporate interests.
Investments in health care and jobs for workers are needed in the years ahead. The cost of housing and groceries must be addressed.
“When New Democrats are elected, people are better off,” said Singh. During the pandemic “we fought to get people help that would never have happened but for us being there”. Now 1.5 million people are able to get access to dental care (which is otherwise a privatized system of health care).
“There’s a lot at stake,” said Singh in his pitch for door-knocking and fundraising. “Let’s win across this island,” said Singh.
Vancouver Island stronghold:
Currently the NDP holds six of seven federal ridings on South Vancouver Island, which has been the case since the 2011 federal election.
Maintaining the Vancouver Island stronghold is obviously very important to the NDP which hopes to increase its national seat count in the upcoming Canadian 2025 federal election.
- Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor has been the food price critic and has brought forward bills on brain injury and food cooperatives; he has frequently chaired the NDP caucus meetings in Ottawa.
- North Island—Powell River MP Rachel Blaney has worked hard on the seniors and veterans files.
- Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Lisa Marie Baron has been working on the derelict vessels issue.
- Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke was held from 2011 through 2024 by now-retired MP Randall Garrison.
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===== RELATED:
- NDP targets south Vancouver Island with joint campaign office in Victoria (March 11, 2025)
- Maja Tait launches her federal NDP campaign alongside Jagmeet Singh (March 11, 2025)
- This is a radically transformed Canada says Alistair MacGregor MP (December 18, 2024)
- Randall Garrison says farewell in the House of Commons (December 5, 2024)
- Saanich-Gulf Islands NDP chooses Colin Plant as their candidate (April 27, 2024)
- Maja Tait kickstarts her federal campaign in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke (September 1, 2023)
- NEWS SECTIONS: FEDERAL NDP | CANADIAN FEDERAL ELECTION 2025