New Democratic Party candidate for North Island-Powell River Tanille Johnston is out knocking on doors and listening to constituents' concerns. She will be in the qathet region this week.
Currently, the NDP is polling at 8.2 per cent federally, but Johnston said she doesn't pay too much attention to the polls.
"Those polls and predictions are so heavily weighted on the east coast of our country and it's really hard to take them seriously or even bother looking at them at all, to be honest," said Johnston. "British Columbia sits uniquely in the federal space, and in the sense that we are highly an NDP province, both federally and provincially."
Johnston said the [federal] NDP has been the social conscience of the federal government and that's been its role for years.
"What she's [former North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney] been able to accomplish in a minority opposition government has been amazing, and it's proved how well we function as a team," said Johnston. "Another thing that's being pushed out there by our Liberal candidate is that you have to be in the sitting governing party in order to get anything done, and that's absolutely not true."
In 2022 the federal Liberals and federal NDP announced a Supply and Confidence Agreement, allowing for quicker movement on issues such as $10 a day child care, dental care and pharmacare.
"It's a long reach for the Liberals to take, to try to discount the value of the NDP party at the table in Ottawa," said Johnston. "It's also concerning that the Liberals are talking in a way where a majority government would be a good thing, because that's just not true."
Johnstone said she is hearing a lot of concern about strategic voting from constituents.
"The conversation that I end up having the most is the strategic voting conversation," said Johnston. "People want to feel confident in what their strategic vote is but it overshadows [other issues such as] the huge health care crisis we all know that we're in, it overshadows platform announcements, because people are more focused on keeping the Conservatives out of government."
Johnston said she is still hearing from voters that the opioid crisis is a huge issue for people in this riding, and the cost of living is a concern.
"Another concern [from constituents] is when there are different platform announcements being made [by political parties], where is the money going to come from?" said Johnston. "As far as I'm aware, it's only the NDP and the Green Party that have said, well, that money is going to be coming from the ultra-rich and from the billionaires; equitable taxation so that money is available to do these great things, but we're not hearing where the funding is coming from, from the Conservatives."
Johnston said there is talk of the federal NDP losing party status but she doesn't think that's possible.
"We see our Green Party friends pull through, and there's just no way the NDP is dropping under two per cent, which would lose their party status and lose funding," said Johnston.
She believes her experience sitting on council for City of Campbell River has primed her for working through differences with other parties as an MP.
"I work with folks who have alternate viewpoints [to mine] about the best pathway forward to accomplish a specific task," said Johnston. "This skill set is also something that I'm not overly unfamiliar with as a social worker, working with many different kinds of people and different kinds of beliefs and being able to get to an agreeable place."
Also seeking to represent North Island-Powell River as MP are Aaron Gunn (Conservative Party of Canada), Jennifer Lash (Liberal Party of Canada), Paul Macknight (People’s Party of Canada), Glen Staples (Independent) and Jessica Wegg (Green Party of Canada). Powell River Chamber of Commerce will host an all-candidates meeting from 6 to 8 pm at Evergreen Theatre in Powell River Recreation Complex on Thursday, April 17.
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