Sunday January 26, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 3:33 pm | Updated 4 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Informing our readers: FEATURE INTERVIEWS WITH ALL SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND FEDERAL ELECTION CANDIDATES IN ALL FOUR MAIN PARTIES [Contact: news@islandsocialtrends.com]
In Cowichan-Malahat-Langford there are four Conservative Party of Canada candidate applicants vying to become the party’s candidate for upcoming federal election.
This article looks at Martin Barker’s campaign to become the Conservative candidate in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. Also see articles about Charles Borg, Jeff Kibble and Mike Harris.
Martin Barker is a Conservative Party of Canada candidate applicant for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford on Vancouver Island.
Barker is a former Duncan city councillor (2011 to 2014) and a practicing chiropractor. He moved to Vancouver Island from Alberta in 1993.
He ran for the Conservatives in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford in 2015; that was the year that Alistair MacGregor won for the NDP (and has since been twice re-elected, now running for his 4th term in 2025).
And now Barker is back. According to Barker, in 2015 the Conservative Party didn’t think their party was ready to run in the riding, even though he achieved over 14,000 votes (same level as the Liberals). “They didn’t think Cowichan-Malahat-Langford was a viable electoral district area,” said Barker in an interview with Island Social Trends last week.
In 2015, the Conservatives and Liberals split the centre/right vote and MacGregor won for the NDP with less than their combined number of votes, thanks in part to the Greens further splitting the vote.
In 2019, the Conservatives gave the NDP incumbent a strong challenge at the ballot box, with the Greens furthering splitting the vote n a robust four-way race. But the NDP incumbent gained further support compared to 2015.
One supposes that the Conservative campaign in 2021 became further emboldened by the financial support behind their campaign for Alana DeLong (2.4% vote gain), but MacGregor increased his voter support even further for the NDP (showing a 6.7% gain and 42.8% of the vote) likely through support for social policy advancement in their work with the Liberal government.
Four Conservative CML applicants:
Now MacGregor has put the riding on the federal political map over the last nine years, the Conservative pressure is probably more intense than before.
There are four applicants to become the Conservative candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford for the upcoming 2025 federal election: Martin Barker, Charles Borg, Jeff Kibble and Mike Harris. The candidate selection date is around March 8 (date to be confirmed).
Large riding:
Cowichan-Malahat-Langford is 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 well as the City of Duncan, as are the rural and coastal areas of the east side of the island including the Cowichan Valley.
When Conservatives complain that MacGregor doesn’t have a second office in Langford (he’s got one in Duncan, and also had one in Langford until the pandemic wore on), they are perhaps not looking at the cost to lease and manage two offices. The Duncan office has a 1-800 number that is reliably responded to.
Barker’s viewpoint:
What does Barker, 58, hope to contribute? He wants to be ‘the common sense candidate’ in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford.
That’s even though Barker says “politics is astoundingly toxic”, as he told Island Social Trends last week. In his municipal and federal political experience he says it exposed him “to the whole underbelly” of how politics works. He also incurred a financial setback for having run in previous campaigns.
But after nine years he “got annoyed enough” with the current state of political affairs — Liberals, NDP and overall problems in the country — that it’s time to get back into the fray.
Barker feels that his forthright and insightful views about politics will set him apart from the other three candidate applicants. But adds about the “the other two candidates” (as stated before there were three): “Any of us would represent the people of the Valley well”, as they would be a Conservative MP.
Barker says he is an “authentic and factual” politician.
Barker says that the NDP have “become isolated with policies” that go “beyond” regular things. MacGregor indeed says that Canada is radically transformed with things like the dental plan, the beginnings of national pharmacare, affordable day care and the use of large-scale supports to Canadians during crises (such as CERB during the pandemic).
The “angry vote” that “the whole country feels” is coming out for the Conservatives, says Barker. That includes in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, he says.
Poilievre as leader:
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is “not a populist”, says Barker. “He is centrist and mainstream. He is reasonable.”
Gathering support:
Door knocking is not an effective use of time at this phase of gaining supporters, says Barker. Instead, he’s been garnering his support digitally through his website (where he maintains a blog), social media and email.
He’s been planning this political run for a while. He launched his Martin Barker for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford Facebook page last summer.
To meet people in person he’s doing things like meet and greets: Feb 1 in Duncan (7 pm) at the CVI Pub and Feb 2 at the Rack Bistro in Langford (2 pm).
If he becomes the candidate he will include door-knocking in his campaign.
Barker is a sports enthusiast including football, ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball; he holds a third degree black belt in Goshindo Jujitsu.
He has volunteered for an outreach shelter, the United Way and Scouts.
The Canada-USA worries:
Barker is concerned about the US threat of tariffs, which now seem to be coming February 1.
He says he doesn’t want to see Alberta take the brunt of the response (referring to the federal government possibly withholding oil export to the United States), even though to date the prime minister and federal cabinet ministers have said there will be an all of Canada approach (most provinces are preparing responses and contributing to the federal plan).
But Barker observes that “finally there is something that has unified Canadians”, referring to the shock and awe of the dual threat (tariffs and sovereignty) coming from the US President.
===== RELATED:
- Poilievre pushes free-enterprise direction for Canada (January 16, 2025)
- Jeff Kibble aims to be the Conservative candidate in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford (January 13, 2025)
- Poilievre shifts Trudeau-taunts to all potential leadership Liberal candidates (January 9, 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)
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