A commentary by the former Saanich North and the Islands MLA, who is the B.C. Green Party campaign co-chair.
Regardless of what happens on Saturday, this election might be remembered as the one where the far-right conspiracy theories that have afflicted democracies around the world finally reared their head in B.C. politics.
From the United Nations forcing kids to eat bugs to vaccines causing AIDS to climate change being a global depopulation plot, the conspiracy theories believed by the B.C. Conservative candidates have run the gamut of paranoid fantasies.
And we see their failure to face facts in their platform — they are not putting forth a real plan that will make people’s lives better.
But what allows conspiracy theories to flourish? It is a loss of trust in our government and institutions.
We have a government that ran to make life more affordable, but has instead presided over the biggest cost of living crisis in our province’s history. We have leaders who promised to prioritize the climate crisis flip-flop on the carbon tax and expand the fossil fuel industry.
We have a governing party that lionized our public health officials during the global pandemic, but now ignores their advice on the toxic drug crisis.
When people can’t trust their leaders to keep their word, they start to lose hope.
But the B.C. Greens know that people in B.C. are hopeful. British Columbians have not given up on a better future for our province — one where our health-care system works, where we are kind and our most vulnerable citizens are treated compassionately and all people can build a life for themselves.
What we are missing is leaders with the courage and conviction to tackle the root causes of our problems so that in four years we can say things really got better.
The B.C. Greens have a plan that will tangibly improve the quality of life for everyone.
We have a fully costed plan that will eliminate poverty. We will provide six mental-health visits under MSP, increase carbon rebate cheques and build more transit and make it free.
We will stop senselessly subsidizing and expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and instead invest in a clean, innovative economy.
B.C. had a glimpse of a functioning, less polarized legislature from 2017 to 2020, when the B.C. Greens held the balance of power in a minority. The first thing we did was ban big money donations to political parties, wresting control of our politics away from big corporations and wealthy donors.
We also implemented meaningful environmental reforms and climate policy, raised the minimum wage beyond what the B.C. NDP promised and got the ball rolling on $10 a day daycare.
My colleague Sonia Furstenau and I learned a lot in those three years. Together we sat on the Confidence and Supply Committee that made the minority government function.
We learned how to find common ground and how to push for change. There is no one better suited to get our province back on track than Sonia.
This election, the B.C. Greens are running in about a dozen competitive races in ridings like our traditional strongholds of Saanich North and the Islands, Cowichan Valley, Juan-de-Fuca-Malahat, and Oak Bay Gordon Head.
Sonia is running to win Victoria-Beacon Hill. We’re close to clinching West Vancouver Sea to Sky, where we lost in 2020 by just 60 votes. We are running energetic, well-resourced campaigns in Kootenay Central, Courtenay-Comox and Esquimalt-Colwood.
Our government works best when no one party has 100 per cent of the power. It ensures that politicians focus on getting results for people, not for corporate lobbyists or industry groups that can most loudly advocate to the premier’s office.
This election, electing more B.C. Greens is the best way to make sure that we can bring lasting change to our province and stamp out conspiracy theories and extremism for good.
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