Monday January 13, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC
Political feature by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Informing our readers: FEATURE INTERVIEWS WITH ALL SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND FEDERAL ELECTION CANDIDATES [Contact: news@islandsocialtrends.com]
In Cowichan-Malahat-Langford there are three Conservative Party of Canada candidate applicants vying to become the party’s candidate for upcoming federal election.
This article looks at Jeff Kibble’s launch into the race to become the Conservative candidate in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. Coming up we will review the campaigns of Charles Borg and Martin Baker.
He’s a former navy man who retired and could put his feet up and dabble in various interests. But Jeff Kibble is diving into the world of politics now in his aim to become the Conservative Party of Canada candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford.
It’s a large federal riding that spans a good chunk of the mid section of south Vancouver Island. The growing robust City of Langford is prominent in the riding, as are the rural and coastal areas of the east side of the island including the Cowichan Valley and Duncan.
What does Kibble hope to contribute? After 28 years in the navy, Kibble is new to politics. How does he plan to make a success of his venture?
He outlines his priorities as public safety, affordable housing and food security, improved health are, lower taxes, secure borders, veteran well-being, and fiscal responsibility.
Door knocking and meeting folks:
Kibble is looking to the military community as well as the business community to bolster his path forward in politics. He’s been out door knocking for a few months, rain or shine. Part of this is to learn what people in the riding are concerned about and to get to know the riding and its various neighbourhoods. He’s also working to find supporters who will buy memberships in the party and contribute to his campaign.
“I’ve met lots of people. I listen to what’s important to them,” Kibble tells Island Social Trends.
He has also held some get-togethers with the business community as well as meeting folks in pubs, restaurants and coffee shops. The District association held a Christmas event where he met more folks.
In previous years he got to know more of the veteran community through his participation in the Wounded Warriors run.
His Kibble campaign website is up and running and his campaign rack card is done. “Let’s make the change we seek and bring it home” is the slogan front and center.
What can the Conservatives do?
Kibble believes that change is needed in the bail system and in the finances of the country. These are leading concerns. He is also concerned about housing affordability especially for younger adults who are trying to get their lives established — for that he sees the need to “reduce the rules, bureaucracy and red tape” to build houses.
He aligns with party leader Pierre Poilievre on getting rid of the carbon tax. He’s aware that would also mean the end of the quarterly GST credits that go out to low- and middle-income individuals. How tax cuts really play out in the economy is a subject for continued debate by economics.
But Kibble feels that if there is no carbon tax to pay that the cost of things will go down — including groceries — and that businesses will pass on savings to consumers.
In that sense the Conservatives are ascribing to the ‘trickle down economics’ (popularized during the Reagan era in the 1980s in the USA) which was later found to have not worked as it does not lead to economic growth or income growth, wage growth or job creation.
Kibble is pleased that polls seem to indicate that the Conservatives will form the next federal government. As government the party can do more than being the official opposition, a pathway he wants to be part of. “You get your best representative” if the party forms government, he says.
Connecting to community:
As a Member of Parliament Kibble says he would connect, listen to and understand all the different groups in the riding.
A resident of Langford, Kibble welcomes “diverse cultural groups and opinions”. He wants to work to see his community and riding “be a better place”. He believed that Poilievre can bring people together and that once Poilievre becomes leader he will shift into a statesmanlike approach with the new role.
The Canada-USA worries:
Kibble is concerned that not having a sitting parliament at the moment is a problem. “We don’t have parliament sitting to put forth a plan,” he says. A high level of tariffs now likely to be imposed by the United States “could be very damaging”, says Kibble. Tariffs would potentially further cripple what he sees as a listless economy and historically indebted federal government.
He does want to see Canada meet its two percent of GDP obligation to NATO for national defence, as US president-elect Donald Trump seems to be intent on expecting of NATO partners. That is “part of the Conservative plan already”, Kibble notes.
Political context:
Kibble is aiming to topple the three-term run of current NDP MP Alistair MacGregor.
MacGregor has been a rising star in the NDP, earning a reputation among his peers in the House of Commons as a solid legislator with strong work in committees. He is seeking a fourth term in the 2025 election, to carry on his work within the NDP that has ‘radically transformed Canada’ as outlined in his speech at his holiday season open house in December.
In the last two parliaments — by pushing the Liberal government to make it so — the NDP (with just 25 MPs) has defended consumer rights for affordable groceries, dental care, pharmacare, child care and workers rights. During the pandemic it was the NDP that ensured that CERB support payments were of an amount that was livable.
The other two would-be Conservative candidates in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford are Charles Borg (also a former military man, who has been campaigning for over a year) and Martin Barker (a former Duncan city councillor).
Family man:
For Jeff Kibble and his wife Angel this is a second marriage now 12 years in; they have five children between them. Angel is fully support of her husband’s political ambitions and works hard alongside him on the campaign trail.
Kibble, now age 58, has lived most of his adult life on Vancouver Island and with the navy was posted across the country. He is “well connected to the coast”, including also living in Vancouver and Salt Spring Island.
He enjoys the natural beauty of Vancouver Island and wants to “continue serving our country” by stepping into the political arena.
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