Jennifer Lash has been working at the intersection of the economy, ocean conservation, climate change and reconciliation for the past 27 years. She founded two non-profit organizations in Sointula and more recently was a senior advisor in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. Now she is running for election in North Island-Powell River.

“In the situation we’re in right now, with the dire need for strong leadership both at the riding level and nationally. We’re not getting that leadership from the NDP and the Conservative Party. Whether you’re voting for the leader; whether you’re voting for the party; or whether you’re voting strategically: I think the best choice this year is Liberal,” she explained.

“I have lived in this riding for 27 years. I have voted for the NDP for many years. I voted strategically. There wasn’t anything the NDP were advocating for that I was opposed to, but I didn’t really love everything that was being done. I wanted to keep the Conservatives out.”

“In 2021, I voted NDP and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the experience. I didn’t get the thrill of feeling like I was voting for the vision that I wanted. The NDP had a terrible climate plan, if you call it a climate plan at all, and I just didn’t see myself or my kids in their vision.”

“Fast forward a couple of years,  I started thinking that if I’m not happy voting for the NDP, then I can’t just expect somebody else to step up and change the conversation in this riding.  I realized I had to do it myself. So I  submitted my application back in October/November.” 

“I did it because I felt that there was a conversation for this riding that looked at how do we build our economies and our communities so that they thrive? So that they have the support that they need, We are protecting our oceans and our forests and our climate, but still making sure that people feel a part of the community. So that people don’t feel alienated; workers feel supported and resource users feel like they are a part of things.  I really felt like that was something I wanted to help facilitate in this riding. So I threw my hat in the ring. It’s just taken a while to get through all  the hoops you have to jump through  to get final approval.”

Cortes Currents: What are the key issues in this election?  

Jennifer Lash: “I look at four areas. 

“I usually list this one fourth, but because I feel like what’s happening in the news this week, I’ll list it first. I think we need a Federal Government that has a steady hand on the tiller, that understands how to navigate the very stormy waters we’re in right now. We don’t know what leader we’re going to have yet, we’ll know that on Sunday, but I do know that from what the government is saying right now that we’re looking at three pillars. They are: diversifying our economy so we’re less dependent on the United States; providing support to those who need it and continuing the conversation with the United States so we can get the tariffs removed.  I think that three-pronged approach is really sensible, really looks after the needs of Canadians and gets us out of a cycle of constantly responding to Donald Trump – which I don’t think is healthy for the country.”

“Economic development is a big one. How do we keep our existing economic sectors, such as logging and commercial fishing, going in a sustainable way? How do we continue to build new economies? What is the support that’s needed from a Federal Government in order to continue to build so that our communities can thrive?”

“I combine affordability and services.  What is the help that can come from the Federal Government to ensure people of the North Island-Powell River are supported? That would be things like: keeping the dental care program; implementing some of the commitments around housing; making sure the $10 a day daycare continues; the school lunch program. Making sure that those programs exist,  but also that they’re designed to meet the needs of a rural riding like ours. I feel that in the past, sometimes our programs have been designed a little bit more for urban areas and not necessarily for rural ridings. I would get us more programs and better programs that are tailored to our needs.”

“The third one is the environment. Right now, tariffs and affordability are the things that are front in mind for most people, and that makes sense to me, but we can’t go back on the action we’ve done so far on climate. We can’t go backwards on the work we’ve done to protect biodiversity. If anything, we need to do more. We need to do more in a way that brings Canadians along with it. We need to rethink some of our approaches.  I have been  fighting for healthy oceans and  a safe climate  for decades now and of course I would continue to do that if I was elected MP.”  

Cortes Currents: Tell us about the Living Oceans Society, the Susu Institute and your work with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

Jennifer Lash: “When I first wanted to get into conservation work, it was 1992, and I went to the Clayoquot logging blockades. I was involved in ocean work,  not terrestrial work, but I went there to support. While I was there, I saw a counter protest by some loggers.  I could see, in their eyes,  the fear that they had of losing jobs, fear of losing community and I realized I don’t want to cause that feeling with people.  I don’t think it’s right that the environmental movement as a whole could just dismiss how people are impacted by our decisions and the policies that we advocate for.”

“I was living in a fishing community where even if people don’t fish, they know fishermen or they come from a long line of fishermen. So it’s very much a fishing culture here. What I really liked about it was every day I had to look fishermen in the eye and know that I had thought about how my decisions were impacting them. What could I put in place to ensure that they were part of the solution  and really design ocean conservation policies that worked for workers. I’m not saying that everybody liked all the work that Living Ocean Society did. There were some fishermen that were upset with it but, as a whole, I think we helped shift the conversation a little bit and be more responsible to the people who live and work on the coast.  I was really proud of that.  The issues we worked on there were things like marine protected areas, offshore oil and gas moratoriums, sustainable fisheries.” 

“When I left that, I went to the Sisu Institute, which was another organization I started.  It was a small organization where I provided communications and strategy support to Indigenous communities,  organizations and communities across the country on federal climate policy.”

“I took that same ethic with me, which is, ‘okay, let’s talk about how we can stop runaway climate change, but what does this mean for the people that are impacted during the transition? How do we have that conversation in a really constructive way?’”

“I’ve spent the past two years working as a senior advisor to the Minister of the Environment, Stephen Guilbeault.  I worked on a wide range of files advising him on what his office felt was the  best path forward,  Some climate related, some pollution related, some were about reconciliation or Parks Canada.”

Cortes Currents: I’m looking at the pressures that the Liberal government has been under.  There was just a report from Environmental Defense, which shows that the oil  and gas sector has chosen to lobby Conservatives more than twice as much as the Federal Government.  A lot of environmentalists  expected more from the Liberal government. So the government is under a lot of pressure from both directions. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? 

Jennifer Lash: “There’s a few things we need to really look at. The oil and gas sector in Canada is one of only two sectors where the emissions are going up, the other is transportation.” 

“Canada’s emissions are going down. They’re the lowest they’ve been in 27 years, which is remarkable, and thank you to every single person out there who’s done anything at all to reduce emissions, because  every drop of carbon that we don’t release into the atmosphere is helpful.”   

“Oil and gas is the greatest source of emissions and it’s also a major economic driver in the country. If we were to just turn off the production of oil and gas, which we can’t do anyhow because it’s a provincial jurisdiction, but if that were to be done, the economic ramifications would be massive. And  that’s not fair. That’s not respectful to people. At the same time allowing an industry to grow without being responsible for its pollution is not fair to people who are dealing with floods and fires and other impacts from climate change.”

“Future generations, such as my kids who are 24, have basically been growing up in a world that has climate change.”  

“Another thing to add  is that 40% of Canada’s emissions are tied to trade exposed industries.  If we were to make it really expensive here because of climate action, those industries just might move somewhere else. You’re just affecting the economy at home. You end up with carbon leakage and that means that you’re not reducing emissions.”

“Everything is changing right now with these tariffs. So there’s going to be a lot of conversations around where Canada needs to go.  It’s not going to be fair to a lot of Canadians, most Canadians are going to deal with the impact. We do have to figure out which industries we want to grow and how do they grow.  Oil and gas is part of that going forward. It is not something that we’re going to shut down. It is something that is part of the transition, but I don’t think we should back away from our target of reaching net zero by 2050.”

Cortes Currents: You recently said neither the NDP or the Conservatives have the skills to take on Donald Trump. Can you explain this comment. 

Jennifer Lash: “For the NDP, we have seen no leadership at all on this issue, and I would say no leadership on a lot of other issues in Canada right now.  I think it is very much a party that is lacking in vision, and is not in any way equipped  to take on the very complex road that we have ahead.  

“Pierre Poilievre and  the Conservative candidate for this riding, Aaron Gunn, are very similar in their beliefs and their behaviour, to a Trump type approach. Now I’m not saying that they’re as bad as Trump because Trump is a unique individual and I don’t think there is another one, but they are leaning into that approach of cutting things very drastically,  just cut taxes, cut services, cut everything.”

“I am very concerned that they’re going to align themselves more closely with Trump and we’re going to start to see them taking the country down a slippery slope towards becoming the  51st state. I think  that is a dangerous way to go. There’s a lot of people in his party that do support Trump and Trump’s way of doing things, and that makes me extremely nervous for our riding and for our country.”

Cortes Currents: What do you mean by a Trump-like approach?    

Jennifer Lash: “The populist approach where you talk in slogans, where you vilify people and where you use fear and anger to whip up support.  That is not the depth that we need. They’re just whipping people up into a frenzy of anger and that does not get us to good solutions. That gets you to angry people, and that is the same approach that Trump used. He convinced everybody that America was broken, and Pierre Poilievre tried to convince everybody that Canada was broken.”

“Canada’s not broken. There are always things to improve, but Canada is not broken and I’m very concerned with how Poilievre has presented himself.  I know he’s trying to walk it back now that he sees the dangers politically of being associated with Trump, but I feel that  in the past he’s presented himself as being very much like Trump. He has tendencies to lean in that direction  and I think that’s not good for the country.”

“With a liberal government, regardless of which leader we choose because I think they’re all qualified, I think we have that steady hand, that calm approach that’s really thinking what do we need to deal with right now and what are the things we can focus on that may get us out of this cycle of being at the whim of Donald Trump’s decisions?”  

Links of Interest:

• Jennifer Lash’s Facebook Page
• Articles about, or mentioning, the 2025 election
• The Liberal Party website

Top image credit: Screenshot of Jennifer Lash taken during our interview

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