More island residents turned out to hear Liberal candidate Jennifer Lash than could fit into the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall. Half a dozen were looking on from the hallway. The Wednesday April 9 event was co-sponsored by the Cortes Island Seniors Society and Cortes Island Climate Action Committee.
Kairn Carrington, the MC, began, “I met Jen 25 years ago.”
To which Lash responded, “I don’t remember life before Kairn.”
Kairn Carrington: Yeah, it was a long, long time ago. I was working at Greenpeace on forests and Jen wanted to really take on marine conservation in Canada in a big way. So she started an organization called Living Ocean Society, which became Canada’s leading marine conservation organization.She led that and really spearheaded the notion of marine conservation in Canada. So we worked alongside each other. I was the forest and she was the fish, for some decades.”
Lash was living in the little island community of Sointula throughout that period and still does. She raised her two children there.
More recently she became a Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. It says something about her effectiveness in that role that four other government staffers have become the backbone currently of her campaign staff in North Island Powell River. One of them, Deputy Campaign Manager Holly Johnson, recently told Cortes Currents that 150 people had come forward as volunteers. An NDP supporter suggested some of these were probably just people who set up lawn signs,’ which is probably equally true of the ‘well over 50, maybe more’ volunteers‘ that the NDP campaign manager recently said were helping them.
Jennifer Lash: “I have voted NDP for my entire life, but in 2021 I voted NDP and I really struggled with it. The reason for me was that they had no climate plan. I feel like if we don’t deal with that issue, all the marine protection areas in the world are in vain. This was a really important issue.”
“The NDP had no plan and the Liberal government did. They had a plan that was mapped out and it was backed by economists and scientists. I’m not going to stand here and tell you that the Liberal plan is perfect, that is a conversation that I’m sure can go on forever. But it was something, and it was designed to reach a specific target.”
“So I started to kick the tires of the Liberal party, see what it was and I liked what I saw. Again, I am not going to defend everything. Yes, you can bring up electoral reform, probably I’m just as disappointed as everybody in this room that that was dropped. I’m happy to also criticize them for the things that didn’t work. What I liked about them was that they understood that advancing on things like climate change, like social programs, like biodiversity conservation also requires building an economy and shifting an economy towards one of the future. That doesn’t happen overnight and that it’s hard to do and they really try to put together thoughtful policies that would drive that change.”
“About a year ago, I started thinking about running. It was a really big decision for me to do this. It’s kind of like being in a popularity contest in high school, but the results are printed all across national news in the whole country. I’m feeling very vulnerable right now, but I just really felt like it was important to have a conversation in this riding because this riding has been an NDP/Conservative split forever. To me, this riding has so much more to offer than just getting caught up in that tension.”
She submitted her application to become a Liberal candidate last October:
“I told my daughter that I was running, I told her I wasn’t going to win. She’s like, ‘that is the wrong attitude, mom.’ So I started to change it and say. what if I win and things like that.”
“So then fast forward, and we have Trump in the south and we have Mark Carney taking over as leader. The polls have changed and we are in a whole new paradigm. I think we are on the cusp of something really amazing in this riding. Never before have we had a progressive Member of Parliament who’s also been in government.”
“I think Rachel Blaney is an amazing person. I know her, I’ve hosted her in my home. I think she’s great. I think she worked really hard for the riding. It’s not her fault that they weren’t in power, and it makes a big difference.”
“I know this, I spent two years working as an advisor to the Minister. It makes a big difference when you’re in government and you have access to the conversations and the policies and programs that are being developed. I truly feel like this is the moment where we flip the switch, where we change things and the strategic vote becomes Liberal.”
“The other day I met with the Prime Minister. It was amazing. I had 10 to 15 minutes with him and I was able to say, these are the issues in this riding. We talked about the commercial fisheries, tariffs, we talked about aquaculture, the need for closed containment. We talked about all of that stuff. I’m not going to tell you that he agreed with me on everything and I’ve fixed all the problems because that hasn’t happened yet, but that’s the sort of access that you get when you’re actually with the government.”
“That leads me to why I am comfortable with this government, because we have been through a big change and this government is not the same as the Trudeau government. You may be happy, or sad, about that, but Trudeau did have some ambitions around things like climate, like biodiversity, like reconciliation that from a values perspective were really important to me. It’s very clear that Mark Carney is tracking more towards the center. Some people say even center right, because he’s laser focused on the economy and that’s one of his skill sets that he brings into our dealings with the United States.”
“I really value his focus on the economy because what he’s saying is, we need to stop being at the mercy of this person or this country in the south. We have to stop being at the mercy of these decisions that are happening one day and change the next day with no compassion or no consideration.
“Carney’s about how do we take down the interprovincial trade bureaus and building one economy, but also diversify our economy so that we can diversify our markets and sell our products to other places. So we are more in control of our future and no longer at the whim of what’s happening in the United States. He has the skills to do that. Of all the leaders we have of the parties right now, he is the one that has the skills and the disposition. This is going to require deep knowledge of economics, but also diplomacy. As you know, he did not go to the United States during his nine days as Prime Minister. He went off to France and to the UK building on his skills. What I felt, when he took over was an amazing amount of relief. We’ve got somebody there who can steer us through this.”
“He has released his work, his commitment to biodiversity. There will be stuff coming out on climate, but you’ll see him not leading with that because that’s not where people are at right now. Canadians across the country are just terrified about being able to have a job. He’s really speaking to a lot of people like that, but because of his work in the past, I also have confidence that even if he’s not naming it as explicitly, it’s there and it will help drive all of his policy work. So that’s why I feel super comfortable with him as a leader.
“I just want to finish by just acknowledging the angst that exists right now in all of our communities. It’s not just here, it’s everywhere I go.”
“I’m assuming nobody in this room wants Aaron Gunn. It is disturbing what Aaron is saying (in his tweets). It is beyond appalling and the fact that he said that and Pierre Poilievre did not let him go after letting go of other candidates who I think did less, shows that the values that are in Aaron Gun are the values that are in Pierre Poilievre. That is a slippery slope down to the values of Donald Trump.”
“if you’re looking at the (current projections for North Island Powell River on the) 338Canada website, it looks really hard. So 338Canada is not a poll, it’s a projection. We don’t have a riding level pole, so we don’t know for sure.”
Cortes Currents: A number of people expressed concerns about splitting the progressive vote.
Jennifer Lash: “The vote’s already split”.
“The way you avoid that in my eyes is you vote Liberal and when you vote Liberal, you get a two for one. You get rid of Aaron Gunn and you get a seat at the table.”
“I have knocked on doors and phoned people and I cannot tell you how many meet and greets I’ve done. People are saying to me, ‘I used to vote NDP. I don’t want a lawn sign. I don’t want anyone to know, but I’m voting Liberal this time.’ I had a Conservative come up to me when we were in Powell River and say, after the Aaron Gunn story broke, ’24 hours ago, I was a Conservative.’ We hear this constantly. We held an event in Powell River. We thought we’d probably get 15 people and 70 people showed up for my first presentation there. We are seeing a lot of people who are either Liberal or Liberal curious, really trying to figure this out. That’s why I’m optimistic that we can get to this place where we actually have a seat at the table and can really make a difference.”
“We could end up with a majority Liberal government.”
Cortes Currents: Someone pointed out that the NDP candidate Tanille Johnson is an Indigenous woman, and it seemed like a good time to have an Indigenous member of parliament.
Jennifer Lash: “Indigenous or not Indigenous, I think the NDP candidate is a great person. I have the utmost respect for her. She’s a lovely person, she’s brave, stands up to power and she speaks through it. She will continue to contribute to this riding in amazing ways in the years to come. It’s not her, it’s the party.”
“The NDP had a significant role in keeping a minority government together for the past four years. It was the longest running minority government we’ve ever had in the history of Canada. We got good stuff done, but if we have a Liberal majority, the NDP don’t have that leverage anymore.”
“Right now, the vote is collapsing under the NDP . The polls right now, depending on what you look at, have the NDP at five to eight seats. They won’t have official party status. If you don’t have official party status, you have no funding. You barely get to ask questions in the house. You’re not on any committees. Your role in parliament is so minimalized. So even with her best intentions, which I think she would have, she does not have the power to make things happen and that’s not her fault.”
“I feel the NDP is taking your vote for granted. They’re saying, ‘you’ve always voted for me, so vote for me again’ and I don’t think that’s a good, solid argument.”
Kairn Carrington: “Historically this riding has been NDP, but your point is ‘and things are changing.’
Jennifer Lash: “Under a leader like Mark Carney who’s really bringing a different way of doing things, this is the moment we want to be at the table. With all this enthusiasm to diversify markets, to build economies, to make things better, let’s make sure we’re there in and part of a conversation.”
Cortes Currents: Someone asked about the Liberal policy for fish farms.
Jennifer Lash: “So the second most popular topic I’ve talked about, after strategic voting, on this campaign has been aquaculture, salmon farming, agriculture. I think the government made the right decision with the policy to switch to closed containment. For those of you who want to look me up when I was running the New Ocean Society I helped actually lead the campaign to move to closed containment, or at least to have zero risk to wild fish. So I support the policy, but I really felt like the Liberals bungled the announcement in that they basically said to all these workers, and you guys know how important even one job is in a community, you have to change your entire industry to do X. We’re not going to define what that is. We’re not going to give you a regulatory framework and we’re not going to give you any money to do that. We do not treat commercial fishermen that way. We don’t treat loggers that way. We don’t treat any industry that way.”
“There are a lot of (aquaculture) jobs in Campbell River and so I am committed to advocating for the support that the industry needs to be able to thrive, but with the right technology in place so that there’s zero risk to wild fish.”
“I have met with salmon farmers and I have said, not backing off on the policy, but really helping make sure we’re supporting people as we go through that ’cause I think that’s the right thing to do.”
Cortes Currents: Someone mentioned the fishing industry.
Jennifer Lash: “Just to be clear, both of my kids have fished commercially for almost 10 years now, both salmon and prawns. My ex-husband was a fisherman, my friends and family all fish. There is a difference between the small boat fishermen and the large industrialized fisheries. The small boat fishermen are an incredible part of our coast and our culture fisheries. I know that fishermen are part of the solution and they have a great deal of knowledge. I listen to them constantly.”
“The wild salmon fishery is cut back every single year. What DFO does is, as the fish are coming down, they do test fisheries and they determine the size of the run. They make the decision right there. So a salmon fisherman has no idea how many fish they can catch when they are gearing up their boat because that decision is made in real time based on the stock counts. Can that system be improved? Probably.”
“For wild salmon in general, there’s so much that needs to be done. It’s climate change, there’s habitat, there’s hatcheries, there’s what we’re catching and we need to look at all of those.”
Accusative voice: “It seems to me that the DFO became completely corrupt and unaccountable during years and years of Liberal leadership … How are you going to make the DFO more accountable to actually do their job?”
Jennifer Lash: “I think what you’re bringing up is a really cultural thing, like hating DFO is a sport. It’s a sport played by recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, and concerned citizens. It is just something that we do. I don’t think it’s a healthy environment that we all spend this time hating DFO. I would love, more than anything else, to fix that relationship.”
Cortes Currents: There were questions about the Liberal party’s stance on proportional representation.
Jennifer Lash: “I have not heard Mark Carney say anything about it. I think right now his focus is so much on trying to get through these trade issues and an election.”
“Some sort of electoral reform is important but you don’t want to go forward with an idea when there’s no one who wants to do it. You have to wait for the right time. I just feel like in the next year or two, the focus is going to be on stabilizing things. If I saw an opportunity for that conversation, for example: if there’s other MPs that are interested in that; if you can have a caucus around that; if there’s a study you can do on it; or if there’s a way to advance it through the system – absolutely.”
Cortes Currents: Someone asked, under what circumstances would Jennifer Lash vote against her own party?
Jennifer Lash: “If I felt there were opportunities to advance policies on climate, on reconciliation, on social programs, some of those things are really core, that would be very hard for me. I think if it totally went against my values, I would have to do something.”
“ I like to think that I’m very much a values driven person, which is why I found comfort with the Liberal party, because I did see my values there in terms of needing to fix the ailments in our society, but also understanding the realities of an economy and having to keep people employed.”
This is a highly abridged and edited transcript. The uncut audio (above) is about four times longer but of poor quality, with lots of segments where it is difficult to make out what people said because they were too far from the recorder, repeated questions and answers etc, but also more detailed segments and things that did not make it into the radio program.
Links of Interest:
- Jennifer Lash’s Facebook Page
- Campaign Stories From North Vancouver Island – Cortes Currents
- Jennifer Lash, the Liberal Candiate for North Island-Powell River – Cortes Currents
- Liberals betting on a Carney swell of support in North Island-Powell River – repost from Canada’s National Observer
- Articles about, or mentioning, the 2025 election
- The Liberal Party website
All Cortes Island photos by Roy L Hales; Off Island Liberal photos were taken from the Jennifer Lash for North Island Powell River Facebook page.
Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:
To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency:
- Daily, (articles posted during the last 24 hours) – cortescurrents-daily+subscribe@cortes.groups.io
- Weekly Digest cortescurrents – cortescurrents-weekly+subscribe@cortes.groups.io