Friday August 2, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 1 pm]
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Good food, hot room, long speeches, big crowd. That was the sum of it for the evening BC Greens campaign office opening for seven south Vancouver Island candidates on Thursday evening, August 1, in Victoria.
Without air conditioning at the 1010 Fort Street campaign office location the gathering had that additional push of intensity, but people held on for the speeches moved along by live-band jazz in the room.
Headlining for the BC Greens was party leader Sonia Furstenau, with a heartfelt thank you to outgoing MLA Adam Olsen who is now spearheading the ‘let’s get it done’ action for winning some more Green seats in the upcoming BC provincial election on October 19.
There to meet with folks were Furstenau, Olsen, and five new recruits to ‘take the south island’: Camille Currie (Esquimalt-Colwood), David Evans (Juan de Fuca-Malahat), Cammy Lockwood (Cowichan Valley), Ned Taylor (Saanich South), and Christina Winter (Victoria-Swan Lake).
Dr Lisa Gunderson (Oak Bay-Gordon Head) has been the deputy-leader for the BC Greens for a while now. That riding presents an interesting race. BC Greens held that seat when former BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver was the MLA, and since 2020 has been held by BC NDP MLA Murray Rankin (previously the federal MP for Victoria) who is now retiring.
Speech themes addressed to about 150 party faithful were about voting for candidates who will represent their constituencies and vote with their conscience.
A Langford-Highlands candidate will be announced soon, say Furstenau and Olsen.
Is Furstenau worried about Greens splitting the vote in what will be highly contested ridings like Langford-Highlands where a strong NDP incumbent could be toppled by a BC Conservative candidate ending up taking the spoils? “People should vote for the person who will best represent them in the legislature,” Furstenau told Island Social Trends.
Furstenau herself is hoping to carve out some progressive vote over to the BC Greens in Victoria-Beacon Hill where she’s running against BC NDP incumbent Grace Lore (presently the Minister of Children and Family Development).
Evans has deep Sooke roots. Evans and Lockwood mentioned about ‘sharing a riding’, in that the boundary adjustments have now conjoined Sooke with parts of east coast political realms in Cowichan, Malahat and Shawnigan.
Ned Taylor is one of the youngest BC Green candidates, a former Saanich municipal councillor running in Saanich South where the BC NDP incumbent is long-time MLA Lana Popham.
Clearly running the show for campaign success is Adam Olsen who has stepped back from candidacy and speech-making to running the room.
Capping off the evening was federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May with some words delivered to invigorate the crowd. She will be joining Furstenau and other candidates from time to time on the campaign trail leading up to the provincial election date (as well as supporting the provincial Green efforts in New Brunswick for their October 21 election and Saskatchewan for their October 28 election).
The BC Greens currently have 18 candidates across the 93 ridings for the October 19, 2024 provincial election.
===== RELATED:
- BC Greens in transition as election fast approaches (July 15, 2024)
- BC Green powerhouse Adam Olsen shifts to building the party (June 25, 2024)
- Furstenau takes BC Green fight to downtown Victoria (February 1, 2024)
News sections: POLITICS | BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION 2024 | FEDERAL CANADIAN ELECTION 2025 | EDITORIALS
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke is the editor of Island Social Trends. She has been covering news through a socioeconomic lens with political analysis since 2008 in the south Vancouver Island region.