It has been three weeks since Anna Kindy was sworn in as the Conservative Party MLA for North Island riding.

We actually had a long phone conversation shortly after her election, but this has been a very busy time for Ms Kindy and so we agreed to do the interview on December 3, yesterday. 

As I didn’t get an opportunity to interview her during the election, it’s probably best to start at the beginning. 

“As an MLA,  I represent everyone in this constituency. It doesn’t matter if you voted for me or not, I represent you and I’ll do it to the best of my capacity.  I have to look at what the issues are in my riding and how to address them,” she said.  

Cortes Currents: Why did you  run for office? What was the inspiration?

Anna Kindy: “It wasn’t in the cards a few years back, like two  or three years ago. I wasn’t even thinking of running for the office, but I was seeing so many things going sideways.  I’ve  always been politically aware, so I decided to stop complaining and do something about it. So I threw my hat in.”

Cortes Currents: What, specifically, did you see going sideways that you thought had to be addressed?

Anna Kindy: “I’m a physician. My practice is addiction, so some of the things that we’re seeing in the world of addiction. Also I have children, so the affordability crisis, their friends not being able to get into the housing market.”

“The government seems not to be listening to the people on the ground in healthcare. There is a true healthcare crisis and it’s not  within a year in the making, it’s been a few years, and just getting worse.  When I was sitting in a doctor’s lounge 20 years ago, it used to be a fun place. We’d discuss things and it was good.  Now the atmosphere is not the same. Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers don’t have that same kind of  optimism. You can’t get your patients seen in time, and you burn out, etc.

“I think politicians need to start listening more. So that’s why I decided to run.” 

Cortes Currents: What’s your opinion of the recent election campaign? 

Anna Kindy: “It was a real eye opener for me. I  kept wanting to discuss the issues because, to me, that’s what people vote for. It seemed that there were more personal attacks, some of it was misinformation and people quickly gravitated towards that.” 

“On the ground, it was totally different. We door knocked over 17,000 places and, it didn’t matter what side they were on, most people were very polite.  Some people really wanted to discuss issues. I had some amazing volunteers that helped out, so I met a lot of good people that also wanted change. So in a sense the campaign was very positive, but also negative with the personal attacks. I went in, saying, ‘I’m going to take the high road. I’m not going to make personal attacks, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here just to talk policies.’”

Cortes Currents: You didn’t take many interviews during the campaign.

Anna Kindy: “Well, I wouldn’t say I didn’t take interviews. When I started running, for example, there was an article written that was actually incorrect in what I had said, completely incorrect, and that’s from the local paper.  I actually emailed the journalist and said, this is not what I said, this is what I said. He actually acknowledged that, but never changed it.” 

“I did another interview in Victoria, a radio interview in the morning, and what I said was taken out of context and added to something else without asking me.” 

“I was seeing more of that kind of negative reporting, and I just went, ‘what’s the point? If I speak out, it’s going to be taken out of context, and it’s going to be spun to make me seem a certain way.’ Some of it was misinformation.  My time is more valuable knocking on doors right now. We have to remember that when people vote, they vote first for the party, second for the leader and third for the candidate. We can only sway a certain number. My thought was the more people I reach out to, one to one, the more people will get to know me.”

“This is where there was some misinformation because I never RSVP for certain events and they said that I just didn’t show up.  I actually never RSVP.  I  said, ‘sorry, I can’t make it because I’m door knocking.’ I did go to quite a few events. I did go to a high school. I went to the senior center with the other candidates. I actually did go to Quadra Island as well. They invited me there.”

“I did do events, but where I thought the media would be biased, I decided not to bother.”

Cortes Currents: So what’s it like being an MLA?  

Anna Kindy: “I still have a lot to learn in terms of other issues that people have. I’m probably at it seven days a week right now because we get so many emails and texts. I often email responses in the evening. People want to meet you and talk to you. We’re still in the process of hiring, and  that’s going to help – when my staff is actually on board and I have an office.”

“I’m going to be hiring what’s called a constituency assistant full time in Campbell River. Then one person will be halftime,  a quarter time and then we were assigned an LA or legislative assistant, like a research person: all that in Victoria.  I’ll probably be hiring a part time person in Port Hardy because I want to make sure that we reach out to the northern part of the riding.”

Cortes Currents: How will you work for your constituents as an MLA?

Anna Kindy: “It’s a difficult question to answer at this point, in terms of six weeks or two months down, but the vision of it is, again, that I represent the constituents. I have to look at the issues in my riding, how to address them, and bring it forth in the legislature. Our issues in the North Island are different from the issues of Vancouver. For example, you mentioned water security (in our previous telephone conversation) and I’ve heard that from a few of the islands.  Again, we’re a resource based economy for a lot of people and obviously Vancouver is not necessarily that, as the primary economic driver. So, we need to make sure all these things are addressed.” 

“Second,  I’m a health critic for the party , so I’m looking at healthcare in general in British Columbia. That’s a big task. I think having been practicing for a long time and to have a husband in the health care system and a daughter, is a huge advantage, but again I have to balance it with what patients need and what health care needs in general. So I think having had my feet in it, I can see the directions that we might want to proceed.”  

Cortes Currents: From previous interviews with both Michelle Babchuk and Rachel Blaney, I know that the public and businesses approached them when they had problems.  Have you been approached with some problems already?  

Anna Kindy: “I’ve been approached with some problems already. Example, somebody being evicted.  There’s a limit to what you can do. You can’t change the outcome necessarily, but you can help them navigate the system, to help them get to where they want, if possible.”

Cortes Currents: What are the big issues that you want to see addressed? 

Anna Kindy: “Okay, that’s a big question and I keep coming back to door knocking – that’s the best poll there is!” 

“I would say the first issue would be housing affordability and that goes beyond age. It’s seniors and young people;  people basically with jobs, but having a lot of difficulty making ends meet, or  not being able to get into any kind of market. Rental costs are very high for people. So affordability, I would say, would be number one.”

“Healthcare is a big one for people, especially with people with health issues or people that have moved to the riding that can’t find GPs. That’s crazy to me.  I came here  25 years ago and people had a choice of GPs. If you didn’t like your GP, you could switch to another GP. There were walk-in clinics, they had everything. Now people with medical issues are moving to the area and keeping their GP from elsewhere because they can’t access anybody here. So healthcare is a big one.”

“Then the third thing for quite a few folks was addiction issues.  The overdose crisis as well as the downtown businesses and the safety issues associated with people walking downtown.”

“So those were the main concerns I heard at the door, by far.”  

Cortes Currents: Do you have any solutions? What can you do about some of them? 

Anna Kindy: “Well, I think you have to start looking at  what you can do now and also planning where you want to be in 5 and 10 years. I think that’s very important.  Part of the reason we are where we are now is because we’ve not been planning. We wouldn’t be at this point in health care if we’ve planned for a different outcome.”  

“If we look at other OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries around the world, these are countries that have universal health care, like Europe, Australia, New Zealand. They are shifting the way they proceed with their universal healthcare and they’re doing much better than we are. For example,  we were the top third  in terms of how much we spend per person per GDP for health care, but we’re at the bottom of the list for number of doctors,  number of MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging scans) and number of hospital beds. We’re at the bottom of the list for wait times. To me, that’s not acceptable.” 

“Sometimes we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we have to  shift how we’re proceeding, like those countries have, but we also need to immediately solve a crisis. So how do we get more GPs in town? How do we attract people to the profession? How do we attract people to British Columbia? And how also do we retain our health care workers? How do we make sure that nurses don’t quit because they’re burnt out?  Part of the reason we don’t have enough nurses is they’ve decided they don’t want to be part of the system anymore. Those are things we can address now.”

“Then since we’re spending so much, where is that money going? Since we’ve been here, the health care bureaucracy has ballooned.  We’ve got more health bureaucrats than most of the OECD countries. Is that money well spent or should we divert it to the front lines and get more nurses, doctors etc.”  

Cortes Currents: What do you think of the Medical Services Plan itself?  

Anna Kindy: “Obviously, you keep universal healthcare,  but you also open it up to sort of other models and Guarantee Of Care, so everyone will get care. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have money.  In our universal system,  we can provide it. We’ll make sure you get care. That’s what Europe is doing. That’s what Australia is doing. That’s what New Zealand is doing. They don’t have those wait lists.” 

“In this town, for example, I met somebody,  and she doesn’t mind if I say her name because she actually wrote a letter to the minister about it.  Torva Logan went to EMERGE and ended up being diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer.”

“She’s 42 years old. Okay, 42 years old and the doctor at emergency told her, because everything takes so long to access, if you can get out of Canada, get out. She had been a vet  in the States for six years and  so she ended up being able to access care in the States and she’s still alive today.” 

“What I’m saying is we can’t not provide care,  like we are doing now. It’s part of the burnout that physicians feel. When you can’t access care for your patients, it’s quite frustrating.”

“Imagine a person who is waiting in pain, in Canada, and they’re not going to have  the procedure done for a year or two. That’s not acceptable. We’ve got to solve this.”  

“What we’re planning is what’s called Guarantee Of Care. So if we can find money and find a system that will do it for them now, that’s what we need to do. If you pass a certain parameter that’s acceptable,  in terms of wait times, we pay for it wherever they can provide the procedure at the same cost that would be provided here. That gives a person an option, so it’s called Guarantee of Care. That’s what Britain does, for example, for cataract surgeries. So if you’re in  an area where there are not a lot of ophthalmologists that do cataract surgery, they’re going to cover you going either in the same country or to another country.”

Cortes Currents: “I am going to ask about climate change. When I talked to you before, you didn’t think of it as a ‘now’ issue, but there’s a lot of people who do.  The windstorms that we just had may not have been catastrophic, but BC Hydro has tied them to climate change, and there’s been quite a lot of storms recently. There’s the die off of the marine creatures, which was a combination of the heat dome and low tides back in 2021. In 2016 wildfire smoke blanketed everything from Victoria up to at least Cortes Island. I’m 73 years old. Prior to that I had never seen smoke like that. There have been a lot of extreme weather events associated with climate change. What do you say to your constituents who perceive this as an immediate problem?”

Anna Kindy: “Climate change is real. It might not have been the top three contenders for people I met at the door but if it’s important to you and it is important for a lot of folks. We need to address that.”

“How do we address it? I don’t think taxing people is the way to address it, because when there’s an affordability crisis,  if I was  retired with a pension, I wouldn’t worry too much about maybe  having a carbon tax. When you’re  at the margins financially, it makes a difference. So I don’t think taxing people is a solution whatsoever.” 

“You talked about water security, so how do you mitigate that? How do you make sure that you have enough water?  In terms of forest fires in the interior, a lot of it was pine beetle kill, so should we mitigate it differently, knowing that potentially we’re going to have more forest fires?

Number three, food security,  with climate change, can we actually improve our food security? Can we grow things and become more self-sufficient.”

“When you look at a country like Norway, for example,  they basically have $1.7 trillion in the bank and everything’s electrified.  So how did they do that? Well, they invested in their LNG and with that they were able to address and electrify their country.” 

“We’re on target in British Columbia, this year, to reach over 9 billion in debt, potentially for one year. We’ve doubled our debt in seven years. We have to pay interest on that debt that we’re leaving to the kids. Do we maybe look at the whole picture and say, well, maybe we should invest in LNG, which is less polluting as far as I know. Again, I’m not a climate scientist.” 

“If people want to come to me with data and information, please do. I want to encourage people to do that. But the way I look at it, is you can invest in LNG  and with that money you can start investing in renewables and looking at alternative sources of energy.”

“You can’t  switch an economy from one to the other instantaneously. It’s a planning process, and it takes some thought.  Also you have to consider that everything costs money and we need to make sure we respect the next generation and we don’t leave them with a huge debt that they have to service. To me,  that’s not fair, right?” 

Cortes Currents: I don’t really want to talk about LNG too much because we’ll end up talking about nothing else, but I do have to say a couple of things. Methane has really bad emissions.  

Anna Kindy: “What’s that?” 

Cortes Currents: Methane emissions, that’s with LNG. 

Anna Kindy, “Yes.” 

Cortes Currents: Geothermal is interesting. 

Anna Kindy: “Geothermal is very interesting, I agree and I’m not sure why we’re not doing more of it. I have a neighbour here.  He has quite a nice property and  all his electrical needs were met by geothermal. He was selling to the grid.  I’m not sure why BC Hydro stopped buying. Things could have changed. This was a few years ago.” 

“People are throwing out (the idea of) using nuclear energy. I don’t know enough about it to discuss it today, but is that an option?” 

These are issues that need to be addressed in much greater depth in the future. 

All photos courtesy Anna Kindy’s Facebook page

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