Unity, community and resistance were the rallying cries during a Vancouver Island NDP event Thursday night that drew more than 300 supporters.
The election rally for Gord Johns, incumbent MP for Courtenay-Alberni and North Island-Powell River candidate Tanille Johnston featured live brass music and a jubilant and defiant crowd — some sporting orange wigs or draped in multicoloured Pride flags.
A rainbow even made an appearance following a day of torrential rain.
Charlie Angus, former NDP MP and Trump provocateur, on his cross-country Elbows Up speaking tour, made a guest appearance. The veteran politician got wild applause for calls for continued resistance to the US president’s continued attacks on democracy, Canada’s sovereignty, and inclusive values.
Holding the event at the No. 6 Mine Memorial Park symbolizes NDP values and roots on Vancouver Island, Johns told the crowd. The park is dedicated to the memory of local coal miners and the town where historical union agitator Ginger Goodwin was killed.
“We’re in Cumberland for a reason, because this is the heart of our movement for social, environmental, economic justice, and to advance reconciliation,” Johns said.
“I think that we can all agree that it's going to be an Elbows Up night, so try not to hit each other in the eye.”
Praising the crowd for electing “unity and compassion”, Johns targeted Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for relying on wedge politics and candidates that divide people rather than bring them together.
Pointing into the crowd, Johns said, “I love that sign!”
”Yes! ‘Let's make empathy great again.’”
The NDP must return to Ottawa to prevent a Conservative government and protect people and communities’ interests, he said.
The track record of previous Conservative governments is a history of cuts to social services and poor treatment of Indigenous peoples, seniors, and veterans, Johns said.
Both Conservatives and Liberals won’t tax big corporations’ profits and have failed to invest in affordable non-market housing.
“The corporate control parties won't do it, so it's going to take New Democrats to do that,” Johns said.
Conservative are evading voters, the press and other parties during the election, Johns said.
“We can’t find the Conservatives. They don’t show up for debates… they’re not taking questions from media” he said
Poilievre’s candidates need to be transparent about the values they support, the cuts they’re planning and what tax breaks they’ll provide to the wealthy, he said.
“They are running and hiding because they know what we’re going to ask them.”
Bringing Johnston on stage, Johns described the Campbell River city councillor as a strong We Wai Kai woman, mother, and nurse.
Conceding her mother named her after the 70s hit band Captain and Tanille, Johnston said she stepped into the federal arena for a very specific reason.
“I feel like there's like a one-word answer to that question — which is fascism,” she said.
She said she couldn’t stomach North Island Conservative candidate and right-wing influencer Aaron Gunn — with an archive of “dismissive and harmful” social media posts — parachuting into the riding to run unopposed by a strong candidate.
“There is no way that this person can represent my traditional territory, my home, my neck of the woods,” she said.
Gunn is at the centre of political outcry for tweets that many First Nations and municipal leaders in the northern island riding say promote residential school denialism. He’s also under scrutiny for other posts praising Elon Musk or stating “the gender pay gap doesn’t exist” and “systemic racism is a myth”.
An online petition started last week demanding Poilievre remove Gunn as a candidate currently has close to 18,500 signatures.
Regardless, at this time projections suggest Gunn and other Tory candidates will win rural a number of ridings on Vancouver Island — the NDP’s stronghold in the past decade — despite the Conservative’s former chokehold of support across B.C. appears to be evaporating in the Lower Mainland’s urban and suburban ridings.
The election stakes are high for vulnerable groups in society, Johnston said.
“This is about the safety and security of our 2SLGBTQIA plus community and my daughter's right to her autonomy over her own freaking body.”
“So, if anyone is downplaying this election, please refer them to me.”
Both candidates acknowledged they are facing a “big fight” against the Conservatives, particularly with the threat of vote splitting between the Liberals and NDP in ridings which historically swing orange or blue.
“These ridings haven’t gone Liberal in 50 years and they won’t now,” Johns said.
“But we're going to need everybody to pull together because this is Poilievre's pathway to government.”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
Comments
Gord Johns has been a very active, hardworking, diligent, dedicated and effective MP for the Courtenay-Alberni riding for the last ten years. He has put forward a number of private members bills that have been supported by the House of Commons to the benefit of all of us and the environment.
Max Fawcett is correct when he says that the biggest threat to Gord John’s re-election is the danger of the progressive vote being split. I believe that Gord Johns has the best chance among the progressive candidates to keep this riding progressive and to not fall into the clutches of the regressive Conservative Party of Canada. Thus, I would urge all Liberal and Green Party supporters to vote for Gord Johns to keep this riding orange not blue.
I’ll second that Murray. Gord Johns is the hardest working MP i’ve ever seen. Hopefully the reactionary con voters don’t have the numbers here, as they apparently do have to the north of us. As for Charlie, caught the Edmonton stop, now up on youtube. Big crowd, went over very well.