Tag Archives: BC NDP

Politics

A Cortes Island view: the local election campaign on September 30

338Canada’s latest projection for North Island Riding, taken on September 30, shows the Conservative party of BC having just taken the lead in the popular vote. Nineteen days from the election, they may currently be supported by 47% of the electorate as opposed to 42% for the NDP. The media website uses data from recent polls and the riding’s history. They have covered 13 general elections and, so far, 338Canada claims to have successfully identified the winner in 1,657 electoral districts 89.9% of the time. That said, this is essentially a ‘point in time’ analysis and yesterday showed these two parties virtually tied.

 “We know this is going to be a really close election, so we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re not taking anything for granted,” said Michele Babchuk, the NDP candidate and current MLA for our riding. 

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Politics

BC Green Party leader is coming out swinging

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau says she’s disrupted the province’s two-party narrative before and intends to do it again in the Oct. 19 election.

Furstenau is running in a new riding, the NDP-held Victoria-Beacon Hill represented by incumbent Minister of Children and Families Grace Lore, after winning the Cowichan Valley seat twice since 2017.  

Furstenau will face a “tough fight” in the riding, a NDP stronghold represented by former party leader Carole James for nearly 20 years, said Hamish Telford, political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley. 

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Politics

North Island offers a case study for upcoming BC election

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

This article is part of a series by Canada’s National Observer that will take a look at Vancouver Island’s “ridings to watch” in the upcoming election. 

The North Island may well be a long held NDP stronghold but the recent spike in support for the BC Conservatives suggests a tight two-way race is in the making in the upcoming provincial election. 

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Politics

MLA Michele Babchuk visits Cortes Island

MLA Michele Babchuk was on Cortes Island for a few days last week. She spoke to Cortes Currents after meeting with some of the island’s non-profits in the Village Commons. This was the third time she’s visited the island since she was elected in 2020. 

“I’m hearing that Cortes actually has a lot of capacity and we’ve known that for a long time. There’s a lot of not for profit groups here. A lot of them are feeling extremely underfunded,” she explained. 

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

Joan Phillip, the second First Nations woman in the ‘B.C.’ cabinet, is patient but unrelenting

By  Kayla MacInnis, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In February of 2023, Melanie Mark stood before the “B.C.” legislature, visibly shaken, as she read out her resignation speech.

“This place felt like a torture chamber,” she said, holding an eagle feather and wearing her grandfather’s beaded moosehide fringe jacket.

A descendant of the Nisg̱a’a and Gitxsan people on her mom’s side and Cree, Ojibway, French, and Scottish on her father’s side, Mark was the first First Nations woman to serve on the cabinet of “British Columbia” from February 2016 until April 2023.

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